Facebook mania (Part 1)

Reading my earlier posts, one might assume I am always a very serious person with some sort of agenda or propaganda or something. Other than what I have stated about my blog, I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who's thinking otherwise. I think it's good time to talk a bit about less-serious stuffs like facebook instead of rape and murders and genocides. Although, honestly speaking, expect a lot more serious stuff like that, in future, God willing.

"I'm into facebook"
I first came to know about facebook in the autumn of 2006, in an internet forum for students, and when this member started posting her profile link and all, I really thought it's just like any other site and a total waste of time. (Well it is a waste of time in many cases though!)

I have used other social networking sites prior to that, like hi5 and zorpia, but they all failed the test of time and popularity compared to facebook. An entrepreneur was talking the other month about how genuine the ideas of sites like facebook and google were, but come to think about it, social networking sites and search engines were already existent before facebook and google. But yes, the creators had talent and insight into the business as they knew exactly what the users wanted and needed (being users themselves) and provided a very simple, safe and free solution to the user needs (that other social networking sites and search engines could not give).

It's very normal to see school, college and university students (teens and youths) to be on facebook, and that was the case initially, but in recent years, even the middle-aged and elderly (not to be confused with the village elderly scums I mentioned here) people are on facebook. Of course while the 20-year old daughter happens to have just over 500 friends, the 50-year old momma happens to have just under 50 friends, but almost everyone (using the internet) is there.

I know my cousins and friends are there and almost every single person I met at uni is there, and I am there too!

Here's a real-life facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=423147527852&ref=mf

"I've been fraped"
With any new craze, expect new urban words and phrases popping all over the place. 'Frape' is a good example. It's when you leave your facebook account signed on and someone else (your roommate or friend) comes and 'rapes' your account, i.e. makes you look like a freak.

Finally guys can claim to be raped too, or fraped. Though you can probably understand easily that the person has been fraped, if you know him/her well to know that he won't say "I like sausages, hot and big" for a facebook status.

The entertainment industry is also capitalising on such things. You now have stand-up comedians making people laugh over something that happened in facebook (try Aziz Ansari) or TV shows and movies making references to it (Gossip Girl, etc). It's expected though; coz facebook is the happening thing these days (along with al-Qaeda and terrorism).

"Add me up on facebook"
Please don't disagree with me on this coz it's so damn true. Facebook has replaced the traditional way of communication, just as emails replaced letters.

• You like someone, find the person on facebook.
• You looking for someone, type his name or email address.
• You want people to come to this happening event (birthdays, parties, conferences, etc), put up an event invitation to your 500 friends and you can save money trying to text them or call them or do it the traditional 'card invitation' way.
• You want to preach your ideas to your contacts and unknowns, set up facebook groups, notes, links, etc. (Blogs, forums and websites also fall under this purpose but they are not as happening as 'facebook'!)
• You have this arranged marriage thing going, get to know your bride/groom on facebook.
• And the list goes on and on...

It's even opened doors to the shy ones, the geeky and nerdy ones, the "social outcasts". Never mind not being able to say a single line when you're with the person, open up your mind on facebook! It's like the MSN and Paltalk chatters, the virtually 'social' people.

People also tend to do whatever they like, knowing fully well that contacts would see them or comment on them. From crazy photos from nights out to the coolest gadget you got, you'll get noticed! Certainly, this facebook mania is here to stay until something else takes its place. If you're not in it, that's probably because you got bored, so step back and watch the 10-12 year old kids take your place and get this mania going!

I'll mention few things about the ill-effects this mania has caused in Part 2.