I am amazed at the resolve of my many friends to connect to me through facebook posts, whatsApp messages at all times. They are an interesting lot and we live in interesting times. The whole world has gone global and in this age of information sharing and creating, to be in company of friends constantly provides a special feeling.
I feel blessed to have been in company of friends all the time. Yes, that means connected to them through the social Oops… new media tools. Never for a second in the last couple of years has a moment crossed my mind making me feel unwanted, unattended or not connected. What an amazing time is this! You have someone there at all times updating, informing and advising at all circumstances. If not one you could easily have a substitute in a friend. It is special…. and makes you feel certainly special!
And all the more special it is to see how your friends race to be the first in sharing with you the best possible note, post, joke, or comment that can make you feel all the more at the top of world. After all they want to make you feel so wanted, attended and connected.
In that bid to return favors I look for my role. Can I be left behind? After all they are my friends and they have so many things to tell me, share with me. What do I have? I need to contribute to the pool as well. Faster, intelligently and effectively!
Yes, these are times of competition. You run, you pace and you speed up…also to be the first with the “breaking posts”. Not just to attend or connect to your friend but also to display the swiftness, the energy and your reach in the vast, vast virtual world of knowledge..ie the infinite internet!
So what if the jokes I post upsets my friends..so what if it is at the expense of someone’s reputation, so what if it is gender insensitive, so what if it denigrates another community, so what if it is false, so what if it is exaggerated, so what if it is a total deception…I did not write this…I just copied and forwarded. After all my intentions are good! We can only have a good laugh at this and nothing more.
Now here, I am not writing this to pass judgments at the creative values and understanding of many of my dear friends who have the pleasure to share with me all and everything they come across as reading material on social media circles. Neither do I have serious objections to jokes, posts and comments by others. I am just wondering about the several content that I receive every day and understand its impact on me.
I am into various whatsApp groups of different sections of my friend list and I keep wondering how come most content gets shared so fast and with so much ease. I wonder if at all the jokes I crack, the content I share on social media circles all true. Who made these jokes and why did they? What made them create the content so specific to cater to our innate demands and how and why does this amplify to this great extent so as to reach each and every corner of the country. Amazing it might appear but the content gets all over within such a short span of time. Never has information related to health, education or anything valuing human life reached people so largely and effectively.
And what if all the information I forward as posts happen to be clichéd, false and disturbing. There has been no survey on the authenticity of the information shared nor have there been any clear motive for the intrusive gender, caste, religion and nationality based write ups.
Social Media is a revolutionary tool. We are blessed that we live in revolutionary times. As a friend replied during one of these personal discourses, ‘do not take jokes as editorials. They intend to induce a raise on the corner of the lips and not the eyebrows’….agreed I say, ‘but what if they raise my eyebrows’.
I wonder when we write stuff for public consumption as for the social media what are our considerations. A friend wrote sometime back ‘Men will be Men’ and ‘Women will be Women’…. I am just trying to unravel the idea behind the statement. Is it that the writer endorses the message hidden in these words.
So is when someone posts a joke on a particular community, I wonder how jokes have targeted particular communities for ages. Jokes as my friend says are notes that will makes us laugh but when it is posted, shared and shared a million times it becomes an idea people start believing in. Opinions are bound to be framed and generations base their ideas on those opinions.
A wrong information on facebook the other day generated such a response that a young techie was brutally murdered in Pune for no fault of his. He was in no way connected to the post or the social media circuit but paid the price for living in these interesting fast paced well connected times.
If we believe it is a joke to question the “understanding of a particular community in India”, it has remained so for ages and influenced the thought process of the nation. And at times when the social media is all the more influential these posts have far reaching influence and consequences.
Read More:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/india-whatsapp-saves-man-trapped-10-hours-after-rock-climbing-accident-1453962
A friend sends this joke on whasapp and received 10 likes in 10 secs.
Love ur husband
when he orders you to make tea or coffee.
He wants to feel fresh
to listen your nonstop talks.....
Love him
if he looks at all the beautiful females.
he is just checking that you are still the best.
Love him
if criticise your cooking ... he is still improving
his taste.....
Love him
if snores at night and disturbs your sleep.
He is trying to prove that he is the most relaxed person after being married to you
Love him
if he forgets to
give you a gift on your birthday
he is saving money for your future.
Love him ... Because you don't have a choice and killing is a legal offence
