Staying Facebook Proof

Hello friends, Season Greetings. Hope you’re all having a great time in the hot summer. Heat is awesome, isn’t it? Sarcasm apart, I wasn’t planning to make any blog post before 14^th May as I have my Sessional exams, submissions, practicals and stuff till then. But then, some things were hampering my peace and that’s what made this blog post “Staying Facebook Proof” emerge. It is well evident from the title that this blog post rotates around our life in “Facebook World”. I used the term World with ” Facebook” because in this Facebook era I believe we live two lives- one on Facebook and the other in the Human Universe. We humans tend to remain oblivious in the world of Facebook, mix the Facebook life with the Human Life and that’s what disturbs us at times. Quarrels among friends due to FB likes/comments, makeup/break ups on Facebook, spying, bullying- have become inevitable elements of our Facebook life. Needless to cite that it leaves a negative impact in real time. In some three years of my Facebooking, I have innumerable memoirs at various arenas and strata to stand the test of ordeals posed by the Facebook impact. I shall now share with you some of my experiences that may help to establish poise between your Facebook Life and Human Life.

I would like to take off with a very general issue- Privacy. A few months ago you might have been reading one article each day in the newspaper or on the Yahoo! News fader about Facebook privacy loopholes. From my perspective, Facebook was weak in privacy then but not that weak in proportion to the negative zilch hype that media had raised about Facebook then. Now when there are negligible privacy loopholes in the system, the irony is that the users don’t know setting their Privacy right. I bet 90% of the people reading this blog post might have so inept privacy settings that anyone can gain quite an enough information about them like – your closest friends, relationship status(even if you haven’t kept it public), your occupation, your kith and kin- and Eureka, this is what hackers called Social Engineering. The most foolish thing which most of the FB users do is keeping their Friend list open (Some of my friends have copied me, seeing me they too have made their Friend list invisible, this is what you call “Smartness”). Why the heck do you need to keep your Friend list open either for friends or Strangers? Today when people add strangers in their account, do you think it’s plausible enough to do so? I’m sure not. Your friend list is one of the few ways to spy your life. Have some common sense and set it right, today! Next thing in privacy is Photos. Some so called Divas keep their Albums open for strangers too! Model Eh? Don’t be astonished if you see your pic edited, morphed and uploaded on a leading porn site tomorrow. Stop showing off, if not for your sake at least for your parents’ sake.

After privacy comes the rationality in use. Facebook, a social networking site right? People use it for getting trained as gamblers today. Astonishing! I was stupefied to cognize the fact that a handful of my friends were now expert Poker players and all thanks to the Poker Game Apps on FB. Don’t you think learning coding would have been more useful than learning poker on FB? Unfortunately I’m not aware if we have any apps which make developers on FB and not gamblers. The other menaces are those insane applications like “Top 10 Friends”, “Murder Mystery”, “MY BFF”, “Tagging Friends” and what not. Stupid are those coders who make such random algorithms to fool users and even more stupid are those users who use these application thoughtlessly compromising their privacy. Come on guys grow up.

Now let’s get a little deeper. Facebook is just another world where everything that exists in the real world, exists here too. Remember Sheon Parker’s dialogue from ‘The Social Network’, the one where he said “We’re gonna live on the internet.” ? Facebook has just transformed this dialogue into an equal reality. As life and relationships exist in real time so do they on Facebook too. For my committed friends from my state Gujarat, Facebook might not be so loving to you as it is to the singles. Some say “When we’re together why hide it?” where as the others say, “No, let’s not let it out, Log kya Sochenge”. What the F? Well if we had just friends in our friend list changing our relationship status from “Single” to “In a Relationship” wouldn’t have been a big deal. But things have refrained from remaining indifferent in the recent times. Now we’ve everybody from the family- Parents, Grandparents, Uncle-Aunty, and all Kith & Kin on Facebook. That’s what makes the things difficult. In a country like ours where being in a relationship is considered a bigger crime than raping a woman or sleeping maiden with a man, it’s not at all astonishing that my committed friends feel suffocating over Facebook. I would like to narrate you what you call “Case Studies” in my programming language. I have so many friends who are committed to somebody and I am proud of the fact they’re and also proud of that fact that I’m their friend. Recently, one of my friends (committed) fell a bleak prey to his elder cousin’s suspicion. His cousin noticed his comments on his better-half’s status updates and pics and suspected that he was ON with the girl. Yes he was, rather he is, but Uske Cousin ko Kya? His cousin questioned him about the issue and being easily traumatized by the interrogation, he ended up in removing his better-half from his friend list. Not only this, he had added his better half’s sister as a friend. He had to remove her also from the Friend list. ROFL!! What a blanched act!! But not his fault. He was just a victim of horrible conservative structure our society has.

Well enough of bashing over narrow-mindedness. Now some remedies to this. Well Facebook is a Social Networking site and by chance if you have seen “The Social Network”, Facebook was made for college students, college friends and not for family members and cousins to interact amongst them. Getting to the point, one day I found one of my nearest cousin sisters on FB and sent her an Add Request. I was astonished to see it rejected from her. I sent it her again, and to my surprise again “REJECTED”. Of course I didn’t question her for this act of hers, but it’s now I realize that why she did that. If you take me, adding family members or cousins is a bad idea on Facebook. Once you add them, you need to say confined some limits, which are unnecessary. No liberty even in the virtual world too. This is something appalling. So for the committed ones you have the following options:

(i)                  If you’re in a relationship don’t add your family members in your friend list. If you’ve already added them remove. I’m sure they won’t mind it, will they?

(ii)                If you don’t have the guts to face people with status “Committed”, don’t fall into Relationship. Point here is not about a “meagre” friend request on FB, but its about facing the world with your real-self. Have the chest to face the world. Falling in Love isn’t a crime. It’s time the society needs a change. Play your part in initiating the change. (Guys: Pehla Girlfriend ni permission lai lejo haan).

(iii)               Deactivate your Facebook Account. Very Simple.

My last suggestion for the professionals as well as students. Refrain from adding your colleagues @ workplace and professors in your college in your Friend List. There needs to be some distance when it comes to Work Relationship. And to my student friends, we’re in a college where we have Professors (A Word derived from word Professionals) and not teachers. Most of the Profs don’t give a damn about the students. So what’s the point in adding them? Am sure you don’t add them for doubt solving on Facebook. Do you? ROFL. And to professionals, just one status update made in angst can result in your sacking from the firm. So let’s keep some relationships limited to the workplace, what say?

Above mentioned were a few things that would help to keep you real life in abeyance from the Facebook Jerks. In a inevitably addicted Facebooking Era, its exigent to keep yourself “Facebook Proof”. Happy Facebooking.

Love & Regards,

Anish.