Is social networking on its way back? In the initial frenzy, I registered on Orkut, like everyone I know - getting 'in' was a big deal - the hoopla for an Orkut invite being like that of GMail invites. However, after enthusiastically adding and inviting about a dozen or so friends, my enthusiasm fizzled out. I didn't quite see much value in it for me. The discussion forums I was interested in didn't seem to take off much, and it all seemed a bit lame. I am still not completely sure how I can use it, though I'd appreciate some pointers from ardent orkut-ians.
However, in the past couple of weeks, at least 4-5 people have added me to their Orkut friend lists. Since I stopped adding friends (somewhere around the time my friend list was in the late teens), my list has swelled to 50+ people - all through people adding me to their lists. Ironically, the people I invited to Orkut probably still have a list of friends in the single digits.
I'm reading too much into it - maybe the summer hols have made grad students dust off their orkut accounts and go friend-hunting. Maybe it's just a blip in the vast scheme of things - statistically insignificant. I was just surprised that I've had to log into Orkut so many times over the past fortnight.
Another interesting observation of this online junkie - none of my offline friends (people I consider good/very good friends) blog, except for Alhad (who is AWOL as he lives it up in India on vacation). And many friends of this blog (the small number of people visiting or at least commenting here) are people I've never met in meatspace, or have not met for more than 4 years, since back when I was last in college. While this kind of thing may make sense for bigger bloggers, for me it is nothing short of "Wow!". Amazing, this Internet thing is.
And, Sumedha's book-tagged me. Yikes. I thought I'd escape this madness spreading through the Indian blog circuit (though I'm secretly pleased that someone did tag me :-) - ahh...the social animal that man is, no escaping that - is there? ). More on that over the weekend.I'll do the movie thing as well.
However, in the past couple of weeks, at least 4-5 people have added me to their Orkut friend lists. Since I stopped adding friends (somewhere around the time my friend list was in the late teens), my list has swelled to 50+ people - all through people adding me to their lists. Ironically, the people I invited to Orkut probably still have a list of friends in the single digits.
I'm reading too much into it - maybe the summer hols have made grad students dust off their orkut accounts and go friend-hunting. Maybe it's just a blip in the vast scheme of things - statistically insignificant. I was just surprised that I've had to log into Orkut so many times over the past fortnight.
Another interesting observation of this online junkie - none of my offline friends (people I consider good/very good friends) blog, except for Alhad (who is AWOL as he lives it up in India on vacation). And many friends of this blog (the small number of people visiting or at least commenting here) are people I've never met in meatspace, or have not met for more than 4 years, since back when I was last in college. While this kind of thing may make sense for bigger bloggers, for me it is nothing short of "Wow!". Amazing, this Internet thing is.
And, Sumedha's book-tagged me. Yikes. I thought I'd escape this madness spreading through the Indian blog circuit (though I'm secretly pleased that someone did tag me :-) - ahh...the social animal that man is, no escaping that - is there? ). More on that over the weekend.I'll do the movie thing as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment