Thursday, December 8, 2011

Virtual World to Virtual Relationships....??

We all live in this connected or linking world of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and so on. An author by name Daniel Goleman has written a book titled, “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Social Relationships” In that book, he has explained all about social relationships and how today’s social networking has impacted our lives. I have not read his book, but got to know through an interview on TV. I want to focus mainly on the impact of FB on all of us as I use it regularly. I don’t use Google+ and rarely use twitter, so it’s better not to comment on things which I don’t use it.  



We are slowly reducing face to face to interaction with our dear ones, knowingly or unknowingly. We poke, we love, we kiss, we hug and we celebrate birthdays…..but all in the virtual world. No physical interaction. I have recently observed one thing, that people, who don’t share things about their personal life in their real lives, have started doing so on the virtual world. Daniel said that we are all wired to connect face to face, otherwise we start losing relationships. Recently one of my friend who has around 600 friends on FB said she feels very lonely. Then what’s the use of having so many friends if you can’t even interact with any of them..?? I heard that friends challenge each other as to who has highest number of friends on FB, that’s really sick.


We are so busy these days that we don’t have time to call up our friends or speak to them, but have time to update our status messages on FB. This shows how much importance we give to relationships these days. I have nothing against FB. It’s a great thing that has happened. By the way thanks to FB, I have met my school friends after 10 years. But we should not base our relationships on FB. We should use FB as means to keep in touch with our dear ones and as a mode to enhance our relationships with our dear ones.
I have seen status messages on FB like, “Awwww…I love U soooooooooo much; miss u….choo much; love you, kiss you…muaahh; U are chooooo chweeeeet…”
When I came across these status messages, I wondered, do they really mean what they say; do they really act in the same manner when they meet face to face…?? We human beings are wired to connect to each other face to face. I have seen people wishing their friends Happy Birthday through FB even though they have contact nos. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone wishes you via a call..?? I would love to wish a person by picking the phone rather than wishing him or her through FB.
When I meet new people, I ask them 3 things - Name, date of birth and contact no. On their birthday I wish them. Obviously that person would not have expected to receive a call or message from me. Their reaction would be, “Hey, thanks a lot, I didn’t expect that” This kind of makes both of us happy….:) Because of FB, these days that personal touch is missing and we have slowly started following FB way of dealing with relationships. Everything has its own pros and cons. It depends on how we gonna make use of it. So think of it….:)
Keep Smiling,
Prashanth.

6 comments:

  1. exactly..the fact is few days back the scenario was kindda like this.. there was facebook because of friends.. but now...there are friends because of facebook..

    all these social networking site has changed the way of living which is taking people towards a virtual world..

    stay connected!!!
    its me!!! sharan :)

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  2. Thanks to the social networking sites, we are officially living in 2 worlds: One the physical world (with our family and close friends) where we share some experiences and one is the virtual world where share all our experiences with people we hardly know!! Social networking was supposed to help us be in touch, but it has completely removed the being in touch part!!

    Well written Prashanth..

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  3. @Binu Thomas: Can't agree more with what you said. If they same trend continues, we are sure to loose most of the relationships.

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  4. Now people do it for the heck of it. They do not really mean it.
    I did check. This time, I removed my FB birthday. Out of 600 odd friends, I got 3 wishes on my wall!
    And people who called to wished, did not change.
    If we are looking out to make/maintain the relationship, I do not think social media is the place.

    Information sharing. Getting the sense of connection will do the job.

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  5. @Sahana: Yep, thats the point. People who truely want to wish you will surely do no matter what. What you have mentioned is a pretty sorry thing, I would say.

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  6. The number of friends on facebook, is just an ego boosting number and nothing else..

    All my true friends, still only call me to chat and wish me on my bday.. Those are the ones which I value..


    Great Post!!!!

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