The dawn of modern times and the complete take over by social networking sites have brought up an interesting debate: many people complain that personal relationships are no longer personal ,we have started interacting less in public but more on the internet, a friend is just a contact in Facebook/Orkut, we no longer talk and how it is destroying our personal and social skills. I tend to agree with all this on surface ,but sometimes I think..
Remember that guy who you just found on orkut ,who as per his profile was your classmate for 6 years ,but you never noticed him? Now you found how talented that seemingly looser is
remember that girl who you never talked to in college ?But you found out now how much in common you had, and ironically she is your best online buddy
that flirty guy in college you always had a fight with? how he came back and apologized for the things you no longer remembered…
that bully who now became a counselor for terminally ill patients, and grew in respect?
All this is possible because of the age and dawn of social networking. Agreed that it is killing our previously termed “social skills” but what exactly are social skills?
Social skills are just ways and methods of interaction, etiquettes and behavior. If the definition holds true ,then this is exactly what social networking is all about. Those rules still apply
it is just that it is on the internet. The society has changed, it is no longer limited to one city ,one state or one country. If the society changes it makes sense to change our social etiquettes.
And hasn’t it made easy to get in touch with people? Remember when I referred to a guy who was your classmate for 6 years and you don’t even recollect his name? Imagine you are that guy, you may those introverted ones who did not speak much, who just blend in the background, you are not a social or a talkative person and maybe don’t want to be. But that does not mean you do not want to be in touch, to know about your classmates, let them know about you .You could use those seemingly insignificant birthday wishes on Orkut, maybe use them to strike a conversation with the girl you always wanted to talk to but could never gather enough courage…
Now in the comfort of your house you can talk, contemplate what to say to whom .You may not be the witty one in school or college but that does not stop you from being you. Using these tools you can actually get in touch with the right people,know about them and let them know that you are who you are and what you do…
it gives you a sense of company, it feels good to have friends. Believe me ,it might seem nonsense to some but it still feels good to have a good number of people in your friend list. You still feel happy on receiving happy birthday scraps, even if it is from people you have not spoken to in over a year, also you find it comfortable to use the instant scraps to wish people happy birthday with whom you have not talked in a year. Yes it might not be very personal but, at least the link is not broken.
In case social networking was not there, a link once broken would be broken forever and for introverts it means 99.9% links, because they may not be the type of people who can talk and talk ,call up people discuss on things. They just are not like that,but they can write: an occasional scrap an infrequent chat….
I believe the last generation belonged to the extroverts, the witty ones, the talkative ones, but the next one is for the introverts…the nerds…and the “out of sight out of mind” ones………
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