All in the name of social networking

Somethings just kick off the deepest instinct in you, which you had been trying to suppress for ages. In my case it is the behaviour of homo sapien on these so called "social networking" sites, that sparks off my inner cynic. Cynicism is something I do best and have been trying to hide since some time now.

The other day, I logged into one of the most popular "social networking" sites, Orkut, there was a friend in my list whose face I could recognise but his name was "in London - new number for 2 months 0044...", I questioned given he is a guy and has no girlfriend, how many people would be calling him even while he was in India? If he starts counting on fingers, my bet is his right hand itself would suffice. Ok, I get it he is in London, then again guys is it that big a deal? In the days when travelling abroad is more of a matter of choice than chance, isn't flashing one's photo with Big Ben a bit too much. Take another instance, One of random guys (actually a friend's friend) puts his name as "in XYZ city, new pics uploaded" and was accompanied with a picture of him standing with 4 or so blond girls, all taller than him and a brief description of the guy in question would have words like short, dark, ugly, underweight etc. Off course we are so happy and delighted to gather that he has uploaded new pics, watching him in Vatican is such a delight I wad dying to see. Now could anyone explain me what has social networking to do with my knowing the fact that you are in some exotic European city and are embarrassing yourself by clicking pictures of yourself with relatively very beautiful people. I am more than certain that none of those chicks would have noticed that they were in frame.

"Orkutting" as the word has become, would showcase many such "cases" which escape my entire idea of social networking, in fact they escape my idea of any normal human behaviour. Consider this, one of girls in my friend list got addmission to SP Jain management institute, I know it is a good institute, but wouldn't taking a picture of yourself at the gate sign of the institute framing the name by your hands way off place. First thing that comes with the name of a very good institution is modesty, none of my friends I know from IIMs or IITs do such an idiotic act. But then again, modesty is not a virtue we have by and large.

Then we have a lot of "profiles" where "about me" is written as "why do you care" or "I'm here to find my old friends so f*** off" and similar offensive stands, now will someone tell these people that contrary to their self illusion the world out there is not chasing them to make friends with. It was sheer misfortune that we the poor guys landed on such profiles.

We have hoards of other people who really act foolish and think they are "cool" (amusingly it is also mentioned in such profiles that "I am cool,..."), we have girls who will put pictures of soft toys, babies etc in their profiles in name of privacy (also trying to act cute) and have no issues telling the whole world what they chitchat in scraps, their ideal match, what all and what not. We have guys who shall put their images on their bikes such as Pulsar or CBZ sporting a pair of goggles and think they are taken as lead in DHOOM 3, I am no girl's specialist but I am certain most of the sane ones will nauseate by even the thought of such an image, let alone watching it.

One may come up with the argument that those status messages, pictures etc are not for you, but are for specific people they know. Well, then there are more discrete ways of doing it, you could always send an email to all concerned people about your new number, or upload the pictures at some private album so that all concerned people are the only ones to see it, check that savour it. The truth is some of us suffer from a serious condition similar to exhibitionists, they think everyone wants to see and know what they are doing and if we see them in US or Europe we shall think they are cool....trust me that is delusional to the core.

The idea is modesty a word we fail to realise in our real life, and it is the virtue that commands respect and "coolness" in more streets term. I don't know what is social networking all about, but I surely know what it is not about and it is not about being stupid showoffs and hypocrites.