Throughout human history we have seen man finding innovative ways to express himself, first through sounds and gesture; then these sounds became more complex - giving birth to words, words soon became statements and statements became sentences. This gradual development of expression brought forth the need to document thoughts, and as we all know that need is the mother of all inventions, we had script or symbols for each expression soon. First it started as the symbols on the caves of distant ancestors of homo sapiens around sixteen thousand years ago after the last ice-age, which grew more and more complex by 3000 B.C. Caves, mud tablets, carvings on stones, papyrus, palm leaves etc all have our historical expressions recorded.
These methods though being very effective in expressing oneself lacked to fulfill one key motive - addressing the masses or in other words broadcast. But we are humans, every challenge is a new opportunity for us. We made paper and later printing techniques to overcome it. We had newspapers by the end of industrial revolution in Europe!
And that's how it all started. Now we have satellites, televisions, radio, internet, twitter, facebook, wassap, telephones, mobile phones and so many other tools to broadcast our thoughts. But does world really need all of it , is a matter of debate.
When TV came to existence, people liked the idea of being entertained; however a set of visionaries realized that this can't address the need of humans for communication. They said how much ever we be laughing , we will still be alone watching it. So true. They knew we human always need a two way interaction when it comes to expressing their thoughts. But why are we ignorant! Or may be we know it but somehow don't accept this fact.
At my home, we had an unchallenged rule enforced by my father that we won't watch TV while having food. This was considered family time and a time for recap of our daily lives, sharing our ideas and thoughts, fruitful enough to have a strong family bond. He knew the significance of direct communication. He's not the only one who knows this, corporate world revolves around this idea too. There must be a reason why we still have meetings in our offices though emails are considered to be the legal/formal way to communicate. We can't deny the fact that personal touch to any communication makes it more effective. Social networking sites lack that personal touch, and I don't blame it. Technology always will be a step behind a man's imagination. Networking sites were created with an intention to make it easier to communicate between friends. However, it has somehow turned into a graveyard of stale thoughts, photos and conversation that no one cares about.
When the first time my generation was introduced to Orkut, all we cared about was how many testimonials have we got from our friends; we competed for the count of friends we had. If not that, it was used to spy on whoever made to the publicity chart in school. And soon enough we got bored of these games. Orkut didn't have much to offer and we had its competitors by then in market - namely - Facebook and Twitter.
We had more options here like tagging people in uploaded photographs and statuses including them in events of our lives. I have seen people sharing almost everything on these sites from when they sneezed to how many pairs of shoes they have bought; and to my astonishment there are people liking their statuses and commenting on them. Newest tool to highlight your boastful presence on FB is to have your 'Facebook Movie', which just goes over the board to show your Aww-some-est moments. Whoever has posted this movie on their wall, should know that their life is interesting but not so much to be publicized in such a hilarious fashion; or if this is about you want it as a reminder about your good moments then, there's a need to realize that either your mind has stopped registering the happy moments of your life or that your life is so shallow that it needs proof of your happiness and 'likes' of your friends to testify that those were real good moments. In both of these cases, the world is not even a percent interested in your movie.
Studies have been conducted, and found that social networking sites have done more damage than good for your happiness-quotient. More and more photos and statuses are posted by individuals about their happy moments, without realizing that it triggers a comparison in mind of their own 'friends', which not always has positive result. It is an accepted fact that people won't showcase their failures, so what we see on these sites is one's life seen through rosy glasses. And we fall pray to these superficial portrayal of lives, weaving our own lives online to compete in these baseless battles of boasts endlessly.
I seek an answer to this problem once and for all. I want people to know no matter how advanced the technology can become we will still rely on the personal touch when it comes to communication. I am not against the Social Networking on internet, but I want people to use this power more effectively and restrain from broadcasting the information people don't need. Long talk over a cup of coffee with your friend is always a better idea than to digitally 'poke' him for a hello. Rest is up to you to decide......
These methods though being very effective in expressing oneself lacked to fulfill one key motive - addressing the masses or in other words broadcast. But we are humans, every challenge is a new opportunity for us. We made paper and later printing techniques to overcome it. We had newspapers by the end of industrial revolution in Europe!
And that's how it all started. Now we have satellites, televisions, radio, internet, twitter, facebook, wassap, telephones, mobile phones and so many other tools to broadcast our thoughts. But does world really need all of it , is a matter of debate.
When TV came to existence, people liked the idea of being entertained; however a set of visionaries realized that this can't address the need of humans for communication. They said how much ever we be laughing , we will still be alone watching it. So true. They knew we human always need a two way interaction when it comes to expressing their thoughts. But why are we ignorant! Or may be we know it but somehow don't accept this fact.
At my home, we had an unchallenged rule enforced by my father that we won't watch TV while having food. This was considered family time and a time for recap of our daily lives, sharing our ideas and thoughts, fruitful enough to have a strong family bond. He knew the significance of direct communication. He's not the only one who knows this, corporate world revolves around this idea too. There must be a reason why we still have meetings in our offices though emails are considered to be the legal/formal way to communicate. We can't deny the fact that personal touch to any communication makes it more effective. Social networking sites lack that personal touch, and I don't blame it. Technology always will be a step behind a man's imagination. Networking sites were created with an intention to make it easier to communicate between friends. However, it has somehow turned into a graveyard of stale thoughts, photos and conversation that no one cares about.
When the first time my generation was introduced to Orkut, all we cared about was how many testimonials have we got from our friends; we competed for the count of friends we had. If not that, it was used to spy on whoever made to the publicity chart in school. And soon enough we got bored of these games. Orkut didn't have much to offer and we had its competitors by then in market - namely - Facebook and Twitter.
We had more options here like tagging people in uploaded photographs and statuses including them in events of our lives. I have seen people sharing almost everything on these sites from when they sneezed to how many pairs of shoes they have bought; and to my astonishment there are people liking their statuses and commenting on them. Newest tool to highlight your boastful presence on FB is to have your 'Facebook Movie', which just goes over the board to show your Aww-some-est moments. Whoever has posted this movie on their wall, should know that their life is interesting but not so much to be publicized in such a hilarious fashion; or if this is about you want it as a reminder about your good moments then, there's a need to realize that either your mind has stopped registering the happy moments of your life or that your life is so shallow that it needs proof of your happiness and 'likes' of your friends to testify that those were real good moments. In both of these cases, the world is not even a percent interested in your movie.
Studies have been conducted, and found that social networking sites have done more damage than good for your happiness-quotient. More and more photos and statuses are posted by individuals about their happy moments, without realizing that it triggers a comparison in mind of their own 'friends', which not always has positive result. It is an accepted fact that people won't showcase their failures, so what we see on these sites is one's life seen through rosy glasses. And we fall pray to these superficial portrayal of lives, weaving our own lives online to compete in these baseless battles of boasts endlessly.
I seek an answer to this problem once and for all. I want people to know no matter how advanced the technology can become we will still rely on the personal touch when it comes to communication. I am not against the Social Networking on internet, but I want people to use this power more effectively and restrain from broadcasting the information people don't need. Long talk over a cup of coffee with your friend is always a better idea than to digitally 'poke' him for a hello. Rest is up to you to decide......
