<p>I know all about him: what he eats… what time does he sleep… which best seller is he reading these days… his weekend plans… grade his kid got in mid term exam and even the gift he gifted his wife on her birthday... but I haven’t met him for the past six years, may be seven. Guess who is he to me? One obvious clue: he is my friend. Na, he is not my ‘actual’ friend; he is my Face Book friend. He has 543 (and still counting) FB friends with whom he loves to share all irrelevant updates of his life.<br />What is it in FB friends that is not there in real flesh and blood friends? “I make it a point to visit FB at least once a day even on my sojourns abroad to keep in touch with all in one shot”, he says in one of his sweet tweets.<br /><br />When I first ‘met’ him on FB he looked very different from the real self. May be some people look different in photographs or may be he had grown old. Thanks to his second hand 7 mega pixel digital camera which he bought from his uncle’s nephew’s colleague at a throw away price (all this I learnt from the FB, where else?), I can now see him in different moods and modes… serene, relaxing, naughty, noisy, bustling. If I ever meet him in real life again, firstly, I may not recognise him because I am so used to seeing him on FB. Secondly, in real life he is not as handsome as he looks on FB.<br /><br />Orkut is passé; FB and Twitter are the trendiest way to keep in touch with people. You are considered old fashioned and outdated if you are not on FB. No matter how many good friends you have in real life, the number of friends on your FB account and followers on twitter are metaphor of your popularity and amicability. One is no more judged by the kind of friends one has, the number of FB friends is the litmus test of your popularity. Add to your list a couple of heavy weights and see your popularity soaring.<br />For the trendy types, first came the e-mails, then e-messages, e-cards, e-shopping and now e-friends. What next?</p>
<p>I know all about him: what he eats… what time does he sleep… which best seller is he reading these days… his weekend plans… grade his kid got in mid term exam and even the gift he gifted his wife on her birthday... but I haven’t met him for the past six years, may be seven. Guess who is he to me? One obvious clue: he is my friend. Na, he is not my ‘actual’ friend; he is my Face Book friend. He has 543 (and still counting) FB friends with whom he loves to share all irrelevant updates of his life.<br />What is it in FB friends that is not there in real flesh and blood friends? “I make it a point to visit FB at least once a day even on my sojourns abroad to keep in touch with all in one shot”, he says in one of his sweet tweets.<br /><br />When I first ‘met’ him on FB he looked very different from the real self. May be some people look different in photographs or may be he had grown old. Thanks to his second hand 7 mega pixel digital camera which he bought from his uncle’s nephew’s colleague at a throw away price (all this I learnt from the FB, where else?), I can now see him in different moods and modes… serene, relaxing, naughty, noisy, bustling. If I ever meet him in real life again, firstly, I may not recognise him because I am so used to seeing him on FB. Secondly, in real life he is not as handsome as he looks on FB.<br /><br />Orkut is passé; FB and Twitter are the trendiest way to keep in touch with people. You are considered old fashioned and outdated if you are not on FB. No matter how many good friends you have in real life, the number of friends on your FB account and followers on twitter are metaphor of your popularity and amicability. One is no more judged by the kind of friends one has, the number of FB friends is the litmus test of your popularity. Add to your list a couple of heavy weights and see your popularity soaring.<br />For the trendy types, first came the e-mails, then e-messages, e-cards, e-shopping and now e-friends. What next?</p>
