Information overload: Facebook, Twitter

With the advent of an all-consuming Facebook, later with undeserving media darling Twitter, hiterto unknown, and sometimes unnecessary details about our lives are being displayed on a universal noticeboard, ready for anyone to misuse or judge inappropriately.

Earlier any grudges would be discussed with friends over the phone or would be swallowed in teeth clenches. Sitting in the privacy of our room or cubicle or lab with noone looking over our shoulder gives us the fake sense of security to put all sorts of silly stuff which we wouldn't dare speak about to our closest friends. And our friends take the time to read even reply to that.

Facebook is hugely popular because of what you can do, like develop an accurate profile and pronounce yourself better and find a virtual soulmate through groups and apps. I do not like Facebook because it gives you very little room to actually control your profile. By the time I could sufficiently suppress my skeleton profile, I was fed up with the depth I had to go to. Any change I made was notified to all. Why?

Many will argue that Facebook offers more 'privacy' than Orkut because you can determine more specifically what to display to whom. But what is gained in such privacy is lost in information given out to friends which they could have done without. For example you wrote on someone's wall at 2.15 am. So? It only says that you did not sleep till that late, and spent more time on it than on other work, and could explain your lethargic appearnce in the morning.

Earlier it was the MySpace mania; then the Facebook rush; now it is Twitter's turn. History clearly shows that online followings are short lived. However Facebook is growing, it is tempting to say it will disappear soon. It has already happened to AOL, Lycos, Yahoo, Friendster....

And so we come to Twitter. I try my best to share information in a mini-blog fashion, which will be of some use to me as well as to those who follow me. Some rant about work, some rant without reason, some share a few redundant links and some joblessly document each second of their life. Which will be useful if you were in a reality television serial or wanted some criminal to replicate your life right down to what you ate on the night of May 19 2009.

Essentially, we are sharing more than what should be, and are trying to grasp more than what is required. Will we remember what X felt like at 6 pm the day of the exam? Will we even bother to read our own scrapbook/wall all through from beginning to end? If you have a rival or a person of the opposite sex, and have loads of time to bide away, Facebook is for you. Like retirees and elders rediscovering school friends. Each new social media user account is another distraction which has to be tended to regularly. Being prudent here is key; or, even better, don't use them at all.