“Wow, Ma, your photo on Facebook that we uploaded yesterday got 10 likes!” Well, my days so as many others start depressingly with Facebook. It’s probably the eagerness to know how many “Likes” your picture has got, did anyone “Comment” on your photos, any new friend request or did you get any new Facebook Message! Facebook, the largest and the widest social networking site is an addiction to many youngsters. To start with, my cousin who’s just 8, has a Facebook account. Shocking. But it’s just not merely my cousin, there are so many other kids who profligate endlessly.
I vaguely remember my chilhood with lots of kids of my age, when we played in the open air and running wild in the sun-kissed streets.And borrowed books from our neighbors and friends, totally off guard about the social networks or anything related to Internet. The mere source of entertainment was the television and radio! But the kids of this generation are allergic to nature and fanatically drawn towards the social networking sites in a frail demeanor. The book-reading days are poignantly long lost in the sands of time.
The other day, while I strolled in my school ground in composure, I came across two students who’d probably be doing their 3rd or 4th standard, their conversation went like;
“Hey, you saw how many re-tweets my tweet got?”
“Nope, I had exactly enough time for Facebook!”
“Too bad. Check it out the time you log in. And also sign up for Instagram! Because it’s AWESOME!!
My expression to this was jarring. Profound by shock, I thought I was barely 17 myself and still kept up to my books!
“The little blue bird, The sizable Indigo ‘F’ and the fleeting light brown ‘Insta’ camera have a brought a great change to the kids. With parents who want to elude unwanted tantrums of their kids asking for an iPod and iPads, get them those gadgets before they even ask for it! Atrocious.This paves the path for extended time for surfing the Net and obviously they get hooked to it. Facebook being the most used is because of the various pages created with punch dialogues, picture edits, fanpages and fandoms! Twitter and Instagram are like the “popularity contests”! Twitter is where you tweet, re-tweet, send Direct Messages and of course, Follow celebs, friends and family. Instagram is the “picture” version of Twitter, you can “Follow” people and instead of tweeting; you post pictures and photos and use hashtags (#)! Probably these are the factors leading to many people glued to their Smart phone screens, with their necks craning harder than anytime.
So, here goes a saying, “ Behind every successful person, there is a deactivated “ Social Networking Sites’” account!”