It has been almost four years since I started using social networking websites. I thought I will stop with one site but it is still going on…Thought I will just look at how it all started? Initially the two popular things were Hi -5 and Orkut.com and as I got invites for them in my mailbox I kept deleting them. Somehow I was not open to the overall concept of sharing personal and professional information which is open and accessible to friends and even strangers at that time (Not many privacy options were available in the websites). But I thought I will just open an account and see what the whole thing is about. I first joined Orkut and I think my account was dormant for quite a few months. I had barely a few internet savvy friends in my list. At that point my impression on these social networking websites was that it was more a far-fetched idea for which the Indian junta was least interested in.
But slowly it started gaining attention and people started pouring in. For me, it became interesting as I got access to friends and acquaintances that I never imagined I would meet again. So here comes social networking, things became interesting as I slowly started to know about people I connected with. People started spending time on how their profiles should look like. For the first time we got a chance to put our pictures on display to our friends and family with captions. A virtual world came into existence where you could flaunt a profile picture of a John Abraham or an Aishwarya Rai, give yourself a “My name is bond….” introduction and send a friend request to that girl or guy in your college which would at least yield in a “DO I KNOW YOU?” scrap which is more than enough to initiate a conversation.
I think people became open about things in their life and those inferior ones saw their profiles as their alter ego. I think after sometime I started getting loads of invitations from wide range of social networking sites. Some had the same concept while some tried to be different and innovative. By then I started getting bored of Orkut and I thought I would not join any other one as I thought managing one itself is too much. After a lot of resistance, I joined facebook just because all my friends were in it. It was almost same as Orkut with a few key changes; Orkut was actually more popular in India as Facebook was in the west.
I think the most important innovation in these sites was that people could actually share links on these sites. Once that happened, scope for a lot of reading happened. For the first time, people started reading and sharing blogs. You don’t have the patience to read the whole thing, welcome to micro blogging site “TWITTER”. Twitter is something where you could express whatever you want in 140 characters and you can follow or be followed by anybody in the world. It is still catching up in India but it can be a very cool thing once most of us are into it. Facebook followed and adapted a similar thing which picked up very well.
The point is you could actually market yourself in a very effective way. Let it be a person, community or a company. We have actually professionals who could help you in this; they are known as social media consultants. One of my friends from Mumbai runs a blog on social media issues and you could visit her site on priyankawriting.com. See this is what social media can do to you…marketing happens effortlessly. A lot of other networking websites have come up LINKEDIN for professional networking, GENI for genealogy and family networking and we never know your Idea could be the next best product.
The whole point is where will this virtual world take people to? Will people get bored of all this stuff one day? Will it change the very way people look at life? As people suffer from drug addiction will there be a time where people get internet addicted? I think we have to wait and watch because we are the first generation which is exposed to very rapidly changing technology. We are basking in the limelight as of now as being the most comfortable generation ever but we have to wait and watch whether we would be a happier and healthier generation.
But slowly it started gaining attention and people started pouring in. For me, it became interesting as I got access to friends and acquaintances that I never imagined I would meet again. So here comes social networking, things became interesting as I slowly started to know about people I connected with. People started spending time on how their profiles should look like. For the first time we got a chance to put our pictures on display to our friends and family with captions. A virtual world came into existence where you could flaunt a profile picture of a John Abraham or an Aishwarya Rai, give yourself a “My name is bond….” introduction and send a friend request to that girl or guy in your college which would at least yield in a “DO I KNOW YOU?” scrap which is more than enough to initiate a conversation.
I think people became open about things in their life and those inferior ones saw their profiles as their alter ego. I think after sometime I started getting loads of invitations from wide range of social networking sites. Some had the same concept while some tried to be different and innovative. By then I started getting bored of Orkut and I thought I would not join any other one as I thought managing one itself is too much. After a lot of resistance, I joined facebook just because all my friends were in it. It was almost same as Orkut with a few key changes; Orkut was actually more popular in India as Facebook was in the west.
I think the most important innovation in these sites was that people could actually share links on these sites. Once that happened, scope for a lot of reading happened. For the first time, people started reading and sharing blogs. You don’t have the patience to read the whole thing, welcome to micro blogging site “TWITTER”. Twitter is something where you could express whatever you want in 140 characters and you can follow or be followed by anybody in the world. It is still catching up in India but it can be a very cool thing once most of us are into it. Facebook followed and adapted a similar thing which picked up very well.
The point is you could actually market yourself in a very effective way. Let it be a person, community or a company. We have actually professionals who could help you in this; they are known as social media consultants. One of my friends from Mumbai runs a blog on social media issues and you could visit her site on priyankawriting.com. See this is what social media can do to you…marketing happens effortlessly. A lot of other networking websites have come up LINKEDIN for professional networking, GENI for genealogy and family networking and we never know your Idea could be the next best product.
The whole point is where will this virtual world take people to? Will people get bored of all this stuff one day? Will it change the very way people look at life? As people suffer from drug addiction will there be a time where people get internet addicted? I think we have to wait and watch because we are the first generation which is exposed to very rapidly changing technology. We are basking in the limelight as of now as being the most comfortable generation ever but we have to wait and watch whether we would be a happier and healthier generation.
Nice writing Aditya..
ReplyDeleteWhen I came out of my college, there were no orkut or facebook, We were using yahoogroup, which is somewhat helped us to keep in touch with each other...I think after 3 yrs, I saw one of my friend using orkut. I thought this was some junk. Then finally, my friend registered me in orkut in 2006. Initially, like you, I also didn't provide all the info and it was dormant for sometime.. but when I started using it, it really helped to get in touch with all my friends, this is one step above the yahoogroup.. you feel like you are close to your friends..The success of orkut is, everybody provides their original info instead of fake info that you generally see in the internet..the limitation with orkut was, ppl need to change their name( recently introduced status msg) if they want to convey something to their friends.. this is where facebook had advantage over orkut..In facebook, you are much closer with your friends than any other social website..facebook has nice look and feel, also no spam msg(that you see in orkut) more over, it has all the features of twitter and orkut... I think, soon, all the orkut users will move to facebook if orkut doesn't provide all the new features.. I'm not sure whether twitter can survive for long(not that because I'm not using twitter :-))...The only reason why twitter and facebook is so popular is, they have introduced so many APIs(link, video, photo etc) which you integrate with any website...Coming to the addiction : During my college days ppl addicted to chatting, then orkutting, blogging, facebooking, twittering etc..I don't know what will be there in the future...
yes we did not use yahoo grps as u ppl did...and u r absolutely right if orkut does not come with new things then it is going to lose it's user base for sure....there is less spam in facebook but the number of applications we get in our live feed sometimes irritates us...i know we have an option to hide it but still...I think the next thing would be all this stuff wud go on the mobile patform
ReplyDeleteOrkut has reached saturation, Facebook and twitter catching up in india..
ReplyDeleteNice write up..
Visit my site... http://afaqblogs.blogspot.com/
On social networking site:
http://afaqblogs.blogspot.com/2009/09/keerthi-reddy-asked-is-orkut-or.html
thank you for visiting my site..I have seen your site too..it is quite informative
ReplyDeleteThat was an interesting work aditya!
ReplyDeleteYeah...Orkut was the 1st popular networking site...along with hi5! One distressing fact about orkut was the "Orkut Deaths", that happened about 2 yrs ago. But then,every coin has two faces; they bring in loads of enjoyment. An easy way to keep in touch with all the old aquaintances. Facebook has now beome pretty much common among the college going in India. Hey...i now recollect...even my 12 year old cousin has a facebook and an orkut account!!! ;-)
And yes, we need to wait n watch to see where this virtual world would take us to!
yup even kids are into facebook and orkut now...and as u said they are always two sides of the coin..no matter what...anyways thank you for visiting my blog and giving u r feedback..wish to see u soon..:))
ReplyDelete