Category Archives: Facebook

Facebook or the fake book life!

Fakebook life or the fake life on Facebook!

Yes, we live online!
Going to the mall to hang out with your friends – that’s so 90s, and so boring! Why bother getting all dressed up and putting up with the traffic, the weather and the real people! Plus, you can only meet a few friends at the most at a given time; not everybody is outdoorsy anymore!

Instead, you can chat with score of your buddies simultaneously, from the comfort of your bed. You can scan their latest status, snoop into others stuff, find out what they are up to lately, what music they are listening to and see if they have added any cool stuff or new pictures to their profiles…. Yep, everybody is only a few clicks away, and you can poke your nose into others’ business at your own schedule – whenever you want, whenever you feel like.

It is true Facebook is a great social networking tool to keep in close contact with your friends and family ,and to mingle with your friends online. It is a convenience of modern days that overrides the necessities to go meet anyone at the coffeehouse or in the mall. You don’t have to leave your bed if you are feeling lazy; nobody needs to know what you are doing in real life’. After all, it is your life and you can portray it online whichever way you wish. You can even pretend; you can be something that you always wanted to be but could not in real life! That is what many do on Facebook.

It is human nature; you share only the good stuff on your facebook wall. You can have your status say something elite, something funny, something wise. You can share something cool or something that will make your friends jealous. You can make something up – something that you wish! Even if you are being yelled at by your mother, you can type in your fake status about enjoying the day at home! Nobody needs to know, you can pretend, nobody needs to know real you!!

It is our nature, we like to show off, if we can! And there is no better tool than Facebook to pretend and to be someone else, to be fake!

Nobody admits it and perhaps many don’t even realize that the online portrayal is far from who we really are. We often display and show off as who we want to be, not who we are! In the process, we end up creating an online persona that is far from reality. Continue reading →

Ten big NO-NOs on Facebook behavior

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Ten things you must always avoid on Facebook

So you have uploaded that pretty picture on the Facebook, and updated every little thing in your profile. After all, you don’t want your friends to miss on your cool details.

Facebook is a very useful and a very powerful social tool. How you use this tool – for your benefit or for your loss, is totally up to you. Facebook has become a part of our daily life. We are so used to FB, we often overlook some of the commonsense precautions we should always take on the internet. When it comes to FB, there are some of the big NO-NOs – some Facebook behaviors we should always avoid and guard against. Here are the main 10 of such Facebook behaviors to stay away from:

1. No daily planner or vacation schedule: According to Telegraph, users of networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were recently warned by police after two men were convicted of burgling a house whose owners had advertised the fact they were away. Sharing your away-from-home information is just like putting a big sign in your front yard thyat reads: “I am not home!” This is an open invitation to the robberies and the house break-ins.

2. No Date-of-birth: Commonsense, right? But you will be surprised to see how many of us post date of birth on Facebook. Listing your date of birth on the ‘info’ page of FB is a big no-no. It is a very personal piece of information that can be used by others to steal your personal identity.

3. No home address: Along the same line as other personal privacy precautions, don’t put your home address on Facebook. Your real friends already know where you live. There is no need to announce your home address to everybody you meet online.

4. No password hints: Your place of birth, your mother’s maiden name, the first school you attended, your first pet’s name…..these are typical questions we subscribe to during many online accounts set-up. This may include your financial and banking accounts. Directly or indirectly sharing such info on Facebook is another possible security lapse we should always avoid. Continue reading →

Ten anti-social effects of Facebook

55 Replies

There you have it – your own life exposed to the whole world on the internet. Your pictures, your personal info., your hobbies, your likes, your dislikes and then some….everything is out in the open and by your own choice. That is the power of your Facebook profile. Positive or negative – the impact of this powerful social tool is beyond you and your ‘friends’.

In a very short period, Facebook has become THE social networking site. On a good day, Facebook can get more hits than Google – the godfather of all websites. Facebook is a force to reckon with. If you are not familiar with Facebook, you are either very outdated or live in dark basement with no connection to the outside world, and no access to the internet.

Now that we have established that you are in fact connected to the internet, you are most likely a part of this Facebook phenomenon or fad – whatever you want to call it.

This should come as a no surprise to anyone, Facebook comes with its own side-effects, many of them not so social. Here are ten of the ugly aspects of FB usage, the antisocial effects of this social network:

1. Addictive: If you use Facebook regularly, you know exactly how this site can be addictive. Always updating your status, checking on others, bragging about yourself, or just mingling with strangers…. The Facebook puts a variety of powerful options on your fingertips and you are hooked – for hours and hours every day.

2. Intrusive on personal privacy: Many of us pay very little attention to all the information we put online, some of it quite personal. Where you live, your contact information, what you do, where you go…. You may be opening the doors for others to intrude on your life. Even with all the privacy settings, lots of so called ‘friends’ have access to your personal information, a lot more than you may want to.

3. ‘Friends’ may not be friends: It is very common for everybody to have 100s of FB friends now-a-days; it is a popularity statement after-all. Are the Facebook friends really your friends? If you are adding everyone you meet in your school or workplace or online, chances are that you have many strangers in your friends’ list. Some of them may be there just to watch you. In real life, that would be considered creepy!

4. A society of loners: FB has become a place to pass time if you have nothing better to do. Many FB users hide in their rooms and log onto FB, rather than socializing with actual friends and family. Those who don’t socialize in real life may prefer to add excessive friends on FB and feel ‘social’ online. In some cases, the online social networking tool could actually encourage you to be anti-social and loner in your real life. Continue reading →

Many Indians abroad dating exclusively whites only!

6 Replies

19:19 Me
Are u okay if I use this ‘chat’ for a blog post…a post on ‘Some Indians abroad dating whites only’ ?

19:19 Neelam
No, not really! Plz!

19:20 Me
my loss

19:20 Neelam
haha….sorry

19:21 Me

19:21 Neelam
may be..you can change the name and place…a little

19:21 Me
I should do that.
Why though?

19:22 Neelam
haha I don’t need publicity..or hate mails…lol

19:22 Me
okay cool, thanks

19:23 Neelam
haha np

…………

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” said Shakespeare.

A friendly warning: take this post with a grain of salt, if you get indigestion from racial mix and deviations from the social norms.

Well, looks like you decided to read on! The ‘chat’ above is the ending portion of the conversation below.

Now, what the heck am I talking about?

Luckily or unluckily, I ran into someone online, someone who is a part of this ummm … trend! This ‘chat’ on the social network site is a quick glimpse into the psyche of the new desi generation abroad.

The ‘chat’ spans over multiple sessions, you may notice from the time-stamps. The mundane conversation started something like this:

15:19 Neelam
hi

15:20 Me
Hello Neelam, how r u?

15:20 Neelam
haha gud, n u? Continue reading →

The Indians Abroad

Overseas Living: NRIs & India abroad

Category Archives: Facebook