A couple of weeks back when I was busy harvesting my crops in Farmville, I realised that I needed two more friends to buy a new stall to offer more bushels to my friends. So I coerced my dad to add me as a neighbour. That’s when he dropped the bomb.
What exactly is Facebook? I made a face and raised my eyebrows. How and where to begin?
I sat down beside him and asked him, somewhat accusingly, why he joined Facebook if he didn’t know what it was, to which he replied, “Peer pressure”. Most of his friends were on FB so he joined too. But now he was stuck. He didn’t know what to do on it.
I let out a sigh, assumed an air of importance and gave him some gyan that it’s a social networking site where you can socialize with your friends, send them messages, chat with them, play games, share videos etc. “But I do all that on email. So what’s different? Is it like yahoo mail or rediffmail.”
“No dad, here you can’t send email but send messages. Plus you can play games like Farmville” I came back to the main point.
“But when I am getting an email about the messages I have received on FB, then I why do I need to go on that site and reply to it. Can I simply not reply to the mail?”
Hmmm. I tried a different tactic. I logged onto FB. I told him the homepage is divided into so many segments. On the left side you see your profile. Below it you can add a list of games, below that you can which friends are online and you can chat with them. Then in the middle section of the page you get to see all the updates about your friends. On the extreme right are some advertisements and so on.
This got him confused even more. I tried to make it more interesting by showing some examples.
Finally he asked, “Is it like Orkut?”
“Yessss” I said thankfully.
“Ohh, but I don’t understand Orkut as well. How does that work?”
PS: I now use his facebook account to help me on Farmville. He is happy with simply emailing his friends and chatting on Yahoo Messenger. The pinnacle of his achievement with sending forwarded mails is creating a group of friends and mailing them.
Being raised in a family where the grandmother and aunt were more of a watchdog than a guardian, it was ingrained in my mind that any advances made by the opposite sex were to be looked upon with suspicion and distrust. More often than not it helped me. It was only rarely that their judgement ever failed. Also, if my sharp nose attracted their attention, my sharper tongue shooed them away.
After getting married I assumed that the unnecessary attention would end and after having the baby, I was relieved that now that am safely in the aunty category, no one would bother to bother me again.
But alas, the Facebook. Those who know me know that my memory is pathetic. I fail to remember people’s name, their occupation, children’s name, universities they study in and such important stuff. So on getting message on FB from people whom I do not know, I safely assume that my memory has ditched me and this must be some schoolmate or collegemate that I have forgotten about.
When we (hubby and I, obviously) were on our honeymoon, a guy came to meet me and asked me how I was. I was surprised he knew me. I searched my memory deep and wide. But no, I couldn’t recognize him even if he repeatedly said that he was in my school and my class. Anyway, I digress.
So I got this message on FB from some jerk guy. Here’s was transpired a couple of days back:
SJ (Some Jerk): hello Maddie: Do I know you? (Wondering whether he was in my school) SJ: no, but want to know about you, shall I? Maddie: Ok. Am married and have a kid.
(no more messages for two days then)
There goes the trouble, I thought.
Then this another person messaged me:
Jerk 2: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Maddie: Do I know you? Jerk 2: yes maddie howz life Maddie: (scratching my head) Am good. How do I know you? I am sorry, not able to place you. Jerk 2: so howz u dear Maddie: (ah, the endearment I so hate from strangers and random acquaintances) Who are you? Jerk 2: i m kenzy frm mumbai. i m in stock mkt. Maddie: I don’t think I know you. Jerk 2: TRY TO RECOLLECT DEAR. Maddie: (the endearment again!) nopes, don’t recollect anything. Jerk 2: OK UR WISH MADAM NOW WHT SHD I SAY. Maddie: I don’t know you. Jerk 2: ok dear. if u dnt know me thn try to know me naaaaaa . Jerk 2: wht say can v b gud frnzzzzzzzzz . Maddie: ok but before I get to know. You should get to know me. I am married and have a kid. Jerk 2: same here i m also married and i have a cute lil angel she is 3.8 yrs of age wht ab u and wht do u do . Maddie:I don’t make friends with strangers. Jerk 2: but v r not more strangers now naaaaaaaaa . Jerk 2: and u only asked ab me dear so whr u stay in mumbai i stay at walkeshwar. Jerk 2: True luv is eternal… Cherish the luv when u’ve got the chance, for once it leaves U, it would be difficult to get it back.. Don’t let luv be only a memory in U. .
(Some sentimental message) Jerk 2: so wht do u do
I stopped replying on finding out this was again some jerk and not a long lost school friend. My hubby, on narrating this entire conversation to him, said that there are lurkers on the net. These people must be sending such messages to hundreds of people and waiting for someone to respond. So that they can then pass the time. I wondered out loud, how can someone, who is married and has a kid can go on the net and make random friendships with someone whom he doesn’t know. To which hubby said that who knows whether these people are married or just faking it.
I wonder what makes such people send messages to strangers. They do this with so much confidence and conviction, assuming the other person would respond and be friends with them, if that is in fact the intention. And what really is their intention? Is it that they are too shy to make friends with real people in real world? Do they just want to pass the time on the net? Can they not do this with better things on the net?
I agree we do make friends with people whom we don’t know. Through common friends, while reading their blogs. But in these cases, we at least know something about them. We know them through a common friend, we know them through their blogs. So they are not complete strangers. I wish we could be spared the unrequired attention.
And the latest message from Jerk1: ok i too married and have a kid, see facebook is a medium to have nice friends or brother and sister, no matter it is before or after marriage, but friendship has to be a transparent and true.
Seriously, we (we gals) do not need it.
Disclaimer: My thoughts are expressed here. This is not personal apart from the two people mentioned in the post. This post is not meant to offend the good guys. If sentiments are hurt it is purely the reader’s responsibility. The author takes none.
I know I have been silent for some time now. But if you cannot understand my silence, you will never understand my words 😦 . Well, still I’ll continue. I have been suffering lately. A lot. At first I didn’t know what was happening. It just seemed hazy. I think I was coming down with something. If I didn’t do it, if I didn’t have a regular dose of it, I would feel low. I was getting hooked onto it. I had read it and heard about it that it made you fall into the habit.
Yes guys, its a shame. But am addicted to facebook. I spend around 9-10 hours facebooking! 😛 . It’s difficult not to. It’s so much better than Orkut. Very sleek, very classy, very neat. I feel something is missing if I don’t log in, buy a few friends, send a few mystery seeds, cupcakes, flowers, pet my fluff, fluff’s fluff friends, update my status, set my mood, take a couple of quizzes, among many other things. The different applications are so compulsive that I just cannot seem to stop indulging myself. Someone just petted my Fluff, I need to return the favour now…
Maddie's Musings 