Social Networking Mania

Are you being held hostage by social networking and social media? Is it keeping you back or keeping you inside? Are you too tied up by it to break free for even a minute?

If yes, then there’s a good chance you’re being held hostage. You are a hostage of social networking. You are one among 17 million Indians who are estimated to visit social networks each day.

Raj Tandon is in his early twenties and is Linguistics lead with Google India. This is his first job. He puts ten hours translating Google products and 2 hours commuting to office but he still finds time to spend two hours each day catching up the latest from his peers at various social networks. “I can’t let my mobile bills hit the roof by calling all my friends or acquaintances so social networks are the cheapest mode to be in touch,” remarks Raj.
Chronology of Social Networks
Year = Social network founded
* 1995 = Classmates.com
* 1997 = Six Degrees of Separation
* 1999 = Circle of Friends
* 2002 = Friendster.com
* 2003 = MySpace.com
* 2004 = Orkut.com
* 2004 = Facebook.com
* 2005 = Yahoo! 360
Source: Internet

Raj is not alone who is spending time on these sites. An overwhelming majority of corporate executives is India is doing so. According to a survey by leading market research firm Synovate, 79 per cent executives are members of one or more social networking sites. Breaking away from the conventional wisdom that social networks are teenage crushes, more and more adults have started being a part of this new age revolution.

There is an increase in the absolute number of the 35+ age group on social networks, but because of the sheer pace at which younger people are taking to social network, their percentage remains small, claims the survey report of Synovate.
Social network sites as basically web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. This social networking phenomenon started in 1997 with the launch of Sixdegress.com. It allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and surf the friends lists. Since 1997, progress is tremendous; today 57% of the total internet users are the members of these websites.

Networking sites in India are surely are a big hit, with Orkut and Youtube leading from the front, while their desi counterparts like Bigadda are also not lagging behind. Popular online professional networking site LinkedIn is also fetching good numbers more than Facebook, the worldwide winner. Today these websites are not limited to their basic portfolio of a meeting place for peers; these sites have also been started to be used like a job search engine, finding funds for start-up ventures, advertising and helping in crime investigations to name a few.
Top SNS in India*

1.Orkut
2.Youtube
3.Big Adda
4.HI5
5.LinkedIn
6.Facebook
7.Yahoo! 360
Source: Synovate
In one such incident, Orkut helped in cracking the murder mystery of TCS engineer Koushambi Layek in year 2007. Layek was murdered in a Mumbai hotel, and Orkut merged as a source of information gathering for security agencies, which were otherwise clueless.

Threat to privacy, account hacking incidents and unwanted friend requests remain the negative sides of these networking sites. Nivedita, a student of International Relations, Jawaharlal Nehru University says: “Girls are the worst victims of such unnecessary friend requests; my inbox is full of such requests. If people I don’t know request to be my friend, I block them.”

Priyanka, a media student says that she is more cautious with such unwanted requests. “Two weeks ago, I got a friend request. And one of my friends hit approve. And the person, this guy started sending me weird comments; he’s sent me these comments like oh, you’re so hot, and where do you live? I want to meet you. That gets a little weird,” says Priyanka.

Even though there are flaws in online social networking, no one seems to give them any importance. All facts withstanding, the truth is that in the ever evolving world of Internet, the Social Networking Websites have heralded a new era of interpersonal communication. They have bridged the gap between human beings even more than telephone or emails giving a real meaning to the word Social Networking and helping people build Relationships that last a life time.

But the real beauty of social media is that you get responses real-time and on-the-fly. And that, in a country where even the epics have been passed down the generations by word of mouth, means that social media will probably explode and will change the way we communicate.