Socially ill-social..

Today... I am very happy primarily for 2 reasons... First - An experiment which was awaiting completion from past 3 yrs completed today... and the results weren’t surprising. Second – A day spent silently, yet remarkably...

Let me explain the first – Few years back when I opened an account in orkut, then leading social networking site in India, I made an observation (which offcourse many would have also made) that remarkably more number of people started wishing on birthdays, thanks to the person’s DOB displayed on his profile. I wanted to check, does this enhance your relationship quotient or decrease... Today, it is interesting to note that inspite of my DOB not displayed on FB, only those people who have wished me offline were the ones who wrote wished on my wall; else it is an absolute zilch. This is not a complaint against anyone, as I don’t really measure one on his/her ability to remember any bday, as I am only weak at it. But it is interesting to know what impact this social media has made on this society. 

Recently when I called one of my MBA mate, he said that I am not active on FB, hence he didn’t mind to contact me. Ideally it should be the other way around – if someone is not active, then you might have to make an effort to find about that person. This brought about an insight that people have started to believe that FB is the universe, but the fact is FB is a subset of the universe around you. But today, if someone is outside FB, he/she is dead virtually.

Few years back, I had attended a seminar of Shiv Khera, and he had mentioned 4 types of friendships:

1. Friendship of Convenience – Convenience goes, friendship goes
2. Friendship of Usefulness – Usefulness goes, friendship goes
3. When you both have common enemy – Common enemy goes, friendship goes
4. Finally, the most sustainable one – Friendship built on mutual respect.

Today, if I am allowed, I would like to add one more thing –

• Friendship of Social Networks – Social Network goes / even one friend goes out of social network, friendship goes

I had this realisation long back, and I was waiting for something to prove my hypothesis.

This is again, not an allegation against those who didn’t wish me, but just an analysis, I am sure few of them would have remembered but due to genuine reasons could not have.

Second reason why I am happy today is – for the first time I applied for a leave on my bday, met few people and spent good time. Though it was very silent, but it was memorable for more than one reason –

1. Realized that marriage is not just about you, but the society around you – especially your friends, true friends. Never ever let them out. Today, I didn’t meet even a single friend, and that makes them all the more special.
2. For the first time, there was someone on this earth who applied leave just to make my birthday memorable. I didn’t even have an idea that this could happen to me.
3. My close family isn’t bad either, they also proved that they can throw a surprise party... again for the first time.

P.S. This is again an impulsive one. I wanted to write a detailed post on the social networks, but this came out first..  :PP