Facebook Status Madness

A new madness has erupted on the scene: Facebook status updates. (As if the very in short-forms-(ab)use wasn't enough to drive one mad!) Looks like it has taken over the common sense and minds of a lot of people, some of them dear to me, yet others mere acquaintances. Even while holidaying, their status will change on an hourly basis, vividly describing whatever it is they may be doing. A coupla instances: “In Paris, enjoying the most delicious champagne and eating the best sizzlers in the world!” Hmm… well, if I were really enjoying all of that, would I be FB-ing my status thus or just getting soaked in that feeling? Here’s another: “Amazed by the way Italian people build their bathrooms! There are mirrors on the ceiling and placed in a way your lover can see you taking a shower from the bedroom!” Or this one here: “Going to get my son potty-trained. Any suggestions?” (!!! Why would anyone want to put up their son’s toilet-training rituals on FB?) What do you think of this one: “Losing at chequers!” Is it any wonder you’re losing, says me…you’re busy facebook-ing! Another one: “Waiting to soak myself in my fiancé’s parent’s hot water bath tub!” Wow! How exciting!

Come on! I mean there are limits, you know, to what you will put up as your STATUS! On a freaking HOLIDAY, what’s more! It’s as if you’ll gasp, choke, faint or die if you didn’t let it all out on FB.

I have tried and tried and tried some more…and yet, any kind of sensible explanation for all of the above continues to elude me. The only conclusion I can reach to is that it is an obsession. Had such status updates been done by someone unknown to me, I’d have reckoned they were trying to brag and showoff. But, no, this is pure and simple addiction, mania or a compulsion…and, at worst, a need to communicate to anyone out there.

Wonder how Freud would have interpreted this fixation. Would have blamed this, too, on the Oedipal complex, maybe!

Read more...

Random Thoughts on the Tring Tring

"OMG!" "LOL" "BRB!" are some of the few words that had me rather foxed when I was first greeted with them over various chat sessions. It took me a while to get used to these short forms. And longer than a while to accept them as part of the gen y's (or is it gen z,now?) regular lingo. Nah! no harm, really as long as it stays away from verbal, face-to-face communication!
The cellphone sure has changed the world picture with more than just a loud bang...it has done so with a reverberating blast, the effects of which can be felt in the remotest corner of the world. Remember those huge black boxes with thick, twirled wires that had the power to wake up the dead from their graves with their menacing "Tring trrring?" Ha! One was forced, as it were, to pick up the receiver and holler a 'Helloow'(especially if twas a 'trunk call.') Why did they call them 'trunk calls' anyway? Dialling a number was even more painful...the eternal wait for the dial to roll back down. Gosh! It'd have been so much better to use it as a hypnosis tool instead, so long was the waiting time. Well, wasn't this black box(let's call it BB for now, no sarcasm intended regarding the short format) more of a family get-together forum than a phone? The entire clan used to rush near the phone to hear what the caller had to say. And, oh, don't forget the 3 minute limitation a trunk-call had...what's worse, having an operator listening to a private conversation! What DID lovers do in those days? Imagine having a heart-to-heart with your sweetheart with a giggly operator throwing in a 'thee-hee-hee' with every "I love you, dahling!" And what about the P.P. calls? How annoying for a neighbour to have to scamper each time there's a call for Chopraji across the street! On second thoughts, it may have been interesting to know about the lives and the goings-on of others. Did the son of the family fail? What happened to the mausiji who'd been nearly kicked out by her daughter in-law? Do sit down for a cuppa chai and Britannia biscuits...hmm...was the BB responsible for good, social mingling? Cut to the current times. Individual numbers, private calls. Personalised ringtones. Oh, and not to forget caller tunes. Who knows what's happening in the next room, leave alone the neighbour's house. Neighbours? What's that?
Not long ago I heard them say that the world has become smaller. They also say technology is bringing people closer. Hmm, I wonder.

Read more...