chakravyuh of social networking

Chakravyuh of Social networking

Now-a-days everyone has started to behave as if you were born with a Facebook or an orkut account and there could be no life without these sites. Be it your engagement or marriage or housewarming, be it a link up or a break up, or be it a random photo. It has become a tradition as if the things are not complete without being informed about on social networking sites. Only difference is that, earlier it was orkut and now it’s Facebook, and may be after one or two years it would be something else.
The situation has reached such a level k you might not even vote for the government or any candidate who by mistake talks against these sites.

It is okay and acceptable that social networking (SN) helps us to build a circle of like-minded people or helps us connect our old childhood friends of the times when our only way of contacting each other was our landline numbers and home addresses which are subject to change every now and then and later on its very difficult to track those friends again. And SN sites make it very easy to get back in touch with those friends. You can fight for a same cause or create awareness using our account. You can even advertise and hence social networking can help us to a great extent in the initial days of our career.

Well, these are all the cheesy excuses which can make anyone make up their mind to create an account on social networking sites. And then you create an account. Initially since you are new over there, everything just seems to be so good. Also you die to chat. Initially you hardly get people to chat, and then you start chatting with everyone who sends a request. And this is the first step towards the “chakravyuh” of social networking. Slowly slowly you get addicted to it, you can’t think of anything else. Every now and then you open your “account” to see whether there are any notifications, messages or friend’s requests. And then there comes someone who is too sweet, too good, and too ideal to be true but you still believe. Most of the times it’s a fake account, either by a complete stranger (at least you think so) or someone whom you had known all this while as someone who doesn’t talk much. Most of the times you are stricken with the idea of some unknown friend, from long distance whom you can share your “dil ki baat” with (thanks to our Bollywood movies). And at some emotional chatting, you land up giving our mobile numbers and other details. Mind you, this is the second step in the “chakravyuh”. Then one fine day your friends happen to tell you about their bad experiences or you get across some information thru social media k how dangerous these unknown chattings could be. Or at times you yourself only realize that the person who was earlier less known to you, and with whom you thought you could be best friends* with, is trying to interfere a bit too much in your life. Now you are completely awake. You start thinking of ways to get out of this now. At times you try taking advice from your friends, who too seem to be more confused than you and end up giving silly ideas (courtesy movies). You can’t even discuss things with your parents. It’s a great dilemma. On one side since most of the things are really SOCIAL on social networking sites, you are afraid your image might get spoiled. Finally after consulting many HOW TO sites on net, you decide k you should directly talk to the person and end the thing. By now you have already started avoiding his/her messages, wall posts and comments, and that person has already started aiming his/her over emotional weapons onto you. And then finally you say it, deciding to end it in one single message. And then a message comes from other side “what was my fault? Why you are punishing me? I just want a friend. How will I do without you… blah… blah…” sometimes they try to meet you, call you (actually most of the times)

And then you take the final decision. You deactivate your account. But still the person is following you though mobile phone. Then you land up taking one more step, change your sim card… and if the person is trying to meet you, you take help of some strong seeming friend or cousin to threaten the person. Now the matter seems to have ended. You start enjoying your daily life.

Then one day your friends start saying k open a new account. Once again all those cheesy excuses!! You create an account. As earlier, you are very happy initially but you have told yourself not to be in contact with unknown or unwanted people. And then one day, you get a request from that same person. You don’t accept it of course and block that person.

These things might seem to be very simple for those who have not experienced it, but it’s a very common story online in many people’s lives and the mental harassment that you went through could never have been there had there not been these social networking sites.

Social networking sites make everyone easily accessible to anyone… nothing remains private… and finally you start cursing the various days... like the days when you created the account, or the day you accepted that persons friends request or the day when you gave your phone number, so on and so fourth…

Of course there are those privacy settings available now a day, but usually newcomers aren’t aware of these and they unknowingly end up entering the “chakravyuh” of social networking sites…

As for conclusion, only one thing must be said, THINK TWICE BEFORE ENTERING ANY SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES. But as usual this warning too will be in vain, as have been in the cases of many earlier warnings by others. I can only hope that people realize k they are becoming part of the “chakravyuh” at their earlier steps and lead a SAFE AND HAPPY, SOCIAL NETWORKING LIFE…

BEST OF LUCK 