IS FACEBOOK LAMBI RACE KA GHODA?

The first thing we do on opening the browser is hop on to the Facebook page and without skipping a beat, check out the notifications. The anxiety is so much that FB (hereby I will accost Facebook as FB) has given us a spoon in the form of fb icon, which makes the feeding very easy. I will not be surprised if Mark ever devises an application which, eventually leads to chewing and then swallowing.

The seriousness of the subject lies in contemplating with cogency about the bitter or sweet repercussions: sweet when we love to accept as it is now and bitter when we refuse to accept its mortality. FB has carved an absolutely new niche and enticed not only the youth segment but also from every stratum.

We chat, like, share, update status, upload photos, poke and write on wall, play some highly stupor games, fidget with apps and I can go on and on….. Do we ever question ourselves for making ourselves so scarce in the social and digital media? Nope.. because we don’t have time even to frame questions!!

So let me have the honors to do the feeding this time by putting forth a query you coy at; is FB lambi race ka ghoda? Well to me, it isn’t and unlike many I DO have my own reasons to believe and withstand.

Let’s start with a small exercise: imagine one fine morning you woke up, switch on your pc or the Facebook app on your android and a message appears stating, “sorry this site is no longer working” what will be your reaction? I bet, in the impulsive mode, you will reminiscent the good old times spent on Facebook and suddenly a steep, pinching, excruciating feeling of missing it from your life, will haunt you terribly!!! 

This will further ebb you psychologically only to refrain your interest in every other work you do. Now here not many will agree with me because, one may cite that they aren’t as much attached to the FB as I have presumed them to be; the levels of addiction may be less, but there is still addiction.

Here I come to my second and most important question: how long are we going to depend on FB? Depend for what? Our comforts? Like, not having the grit to talk face-to-face but do talk openly in the small, blue rectangular chat box. Send smilies by hiding behind the Facebook profile, but having no good courage to do the same when the person passes by you. So what we are going to miss is the conversation… the wonderful soft skill trainer is the conversation and what we are doing with help of technology is to be alone by being in the crowd; to be audacious in the digital media and toothless in real life; to be freely available, 24*7 in the virtual world and hardly available when someone, be it parents or an old acquaintance or a stranger in your life. The ironical cusp is that we often distrust the identity & integrity of a stranger by mere inane conjectures, which may not be true at all, in real world. But if the same stranger appears in form of a friend’s request and some cute, sycophant chat language, he becomes our true friend within no time.

So we should first do an autopsy on our ‘discerning’ parameters and learn that, whatsoever, howsoever we try to understand one; stranger or a close or an average friend through apparent showcase of concern and care in chats through FB or any such portal, we can never feel the pleasure of the nuances in the expression of the person with whom we talk face to face. We will never ascertain the true way of looking into one’s eyes and asking him/her to share it with you. We will always fail to fathom the naïve eyes of the person, which tells us everything, helps us to find if they are happy or rued; if they are in distress or fretted out; if they want to hold our hands and cry or need a shoulder to lean on; if they want to simply feel the silence in our presence or need a wink from us to strengthen themselves; if they want to tell you everything but need a small cue from you to express so, for they are still shy about how will you take this thing.

If this bane continues for a long time, then in the long run, we may have to bear severe and dire consequences of not able to start and withheld a conversation in true sense.

But that’s still very far to me, because I personally opine that FB is not here to stay for a long time. The reason for this can be well enunciated by citing the example of a double edged sword: on one hand FB will make everything feasible in terms of social and corporate sector but at the same time people will be bugged of the dogmatic renovations gradually and will start looking out for something new and fresh. Who knows people will then wish to switch back to old format of social network and media.

There is a brighter side of the Facebook too. But how long will this brighter side sustain its brightness and luster is the paramount question, for very few percentage of the public has penchant for this genre. There are also so many people who thrive on Facebook to spread their ideas, achievements, and cognizance, which are in the very best interests of both nation and self. 

This social network can absolutely make fortunes for the ones who are working to create a difference in the social welfare of the society, but again the same apprehension whether this will appeal to the youth segment cannot be predicted or even presumed with slightest possibility or probability.

It’s a fragile attempt to make people realize the required essence of FB than the perceived essence. Having said that we can’t deny the fact that millions of people are associated with this network and damage can’t be done in a single day. When we talk about five years down the line, FB is sure here to stay with brand new add on, which will do nothing but improve our dependency on it and paralyze us more.

But when I envisage things 10 years down the line, I see a radical change in the format of both FB and the people who have been ardent apostle of it all the way, for what I ponder every time over this topic, one famous line from Spencer Johnson’s book, Who Moved My Cheese comes to mind: CHANGE IS INEVITABLE. 

Yes!! It is, by and from all means and ways. We have to accept and embrace it before we have nothing else to accept.