Are networking sites a paradoxical blessing? – think again!!

There are other major catastrophes involved which should be checked into more seriously. Moreover we ignore them the most, which actually matter the most.

Cybercrime is multiplying at the speed of light and seldom do we realize it. You never know when an intruder would visit your profile, extract your details and use it elsewhere, places you never thought of or rather even dreamt in your wildest of dreams. I would like to share with you, the story of a young fellow in the middle of his lovely youth whom I came across whilst I was training in the Bombay Hockey Association team (BHA) - Division III.

This guy had made an orkut profile with a dashing photograph as the profile picture. He uploaded more family pictures in his album, Gave details of himself, personal, social, and professional. Accepted random friends, added unknown people so on and so forth. Time passed by, measured in months and not by days.

Suddenly one day, while he went to access his account, to his surprise the username and password did not tally, it was hacked!! If that wasn’t enough he soon realized that his photos were being misused for pornography. The guy was in a state of semi-shock. In an instance he contacted the authority and had his account permanently deleted.

Asking few people their opinion of networking site, I got a broader perspective and this is what they said:

Roshan, co-ordinator for Sarang Community Radio 107.8FM says, “There is no privacy on the sites. Contact list of the number of friends one has, gets displayed to others. Why should others know whom I know or do not?”

Melissa, a student of MSc Bio-informatics says “There is no proper security with a personal contest which leads to harassments, cyber and online scams which we don’t realize. Info on name, location etc would let out who you are to others.

Adeesh Anand, a student of Journalism says “The primary benefit is that you get to keep in touch with your many friends. But other than that, it also has become an enormous style statement. One would probably be termed “uncool” if she /he is not on these networking sites.

Shweta, a student of MBBS says, “I don’t like the whole concept about it, so personally I am not into it. I have better ways to stay connected with my friends. Whom I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to know. Networking sites is a big No-No for me.

Thus we can conclude, people have their own personal views but whether they like it or not, networking sites are here to stay.

In fact, some universities and institutions and work offices (MNCs) search for people on these sites. Once a person has applied for interview or has been in the company or association, they view his profile, his friends’ zone, communities and overall social background.

Personally, even I am on few of the networking sites, for the heck of it but I have kept a low profile. And practically thinking I strongly feel your friends on these sites are not your true friends. There may be a handful but not all. They are just your once upon a time batch mates, school-college etc. with whom you spent your few years. Most of them if you see closely are not those who stood by you, thick and thin, those who were with you when you needed a friend the most. Realize this. I don’t deny that your closest of pals aren’t there, but then I am sure, you may have all their details from cell number, email id, birthdays, home address etc and are in touch by other means also.

And people who sincerely want to stay in touch will always find a way too. Go, just sit back, relax, and think again. You can make your profile but do not reveal in depth personal details.See your taste, think wisely and reason out. You rule your life.