Either you are on it or you are nowhere! Ask for the most popular hang-out, the verdict echoes unanimous across college and high school campuses - SNS aka Social Networking Site. Log in, speak out, etch your profile or demographic details, discuss everything under the sun - sense and nonsense, put up your albums... SNSs have stayed on developing a ‘fascinating’ way of communication, even as new sites pop up everyday and new features are added.
Apart from keeping in touch with old friends, these have become forums to discuss interests, date, chat, send comments back and forth, create communities. It all begins with the search for old friends or so they say. Like Priya from Sophia's says, “It's the only way to keep in touch with my old school mates. And I have met as many as 112 friends.”
While Orkut is still going great guns, Facebook is all set to beat it. Marcus from Christ College, explains, “Facebook has features which allows you to tag other people, you can scrap, place your online album. It is better than Orkut.” Talk of sharing spaces, you also have MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty. Minglebox, BigAdda, LinkedIn, although the last one doesn’t find many teenagers on it.
Call it security reasons or cowardice, many award themselves fictitious names. “Mother Teresa, for instance,” adds Marcus. On the flip side, Nikhil from FAPS says that he can surely do without his Orkut. “For me, it is just a way to keep in touch with people who I don't meet every day.’’ He adds, “many get on to it to overcome loneliness. Once addicted, they cut themselves from the society turning even more lonely." “Strangers add you on to their scrapbook, which is why we keep our albums locked and not attach personal details,” adds Priya. Classmates.com, Friendster and Hi5 are some of the other portals that college-goers visit to unwind. For those more focussed, networks like LinkedIn come in.
Predominantly, it's the freedom that these sites provide that is fascinating for the visitors. Whatever is not possible in the society can be done through these networks. Orkut proved its popularity when, not long ago, it was chosen as the ‘youth icon’. How it became an icon speaks for a mindset. “However, there is nothing like keeping your ‘space’ clean,” they add.
