Life in a Status Message.

I am a  1985 born, still shy of 25. Till very recently, would be one of the youngest members in any group and age was such a high. Now I realize that for the present crop in college, 80's is so passe, you have to be born in 90's. 80's - you are old. Damn!!

Anyway, like most others around my age, we did not ever in our dreams expect to live our 20's in a "STATUS MESSAGE", Cell phones were a college phenomenon, calling everyone for a cricket match meant going to everyones house and getting them out, not a simple SMS. So, our teens and twenties have been drastically different. 

Now we get up, head to work, log on to (something none of us knew when we were 18), FACEBOOK. We check Status messages, "LIKE" them and check for important anecdotes and last night pictures. Our Lives revolve around these alien words which our free spirited youth didn't aspire to be...FACEBOOK, Blackberry PIN, ReTweet, LIKE, FAN PAGE, STATUS MESSAGE, etc etc. Point is it has brought some funny situations which did not exist in 2005. 

1) OMG !! OMG !! Click that and put it up on FB. Half of us didn't own a camera phone, and even if we did bluetooth transfers to comps and then emailing it to a yahoo group was just not as much fun. 

2) After meeting a friend's friend who is attractive, we would strategize on asking phone numbers, wait for the next plan. NOW: Are you on Facebook, cool, will add you there.          (Question: Which category will she put me in, will I have unlimited access to her profile, pics etc). 

3) I could fake popularity. Now Goddamit you can read how many friends on FB or how many followers on Twitter. So even if you have just got to know me, you know I have only 60 friends on Facebook. 

4) Coming to followers. What the heck, Am I some kind of GOD ?? Imagine the kind of truama when you can explicitly see as a 14 year old that only 2 people out of 2000 in your school follow you, but the school hottie/stud is followed by 867 people. Oh! you are going to be crushed, you are never going to see that number, and you can't even say "No Dude, he just seems popular, everyone in my school bus hates him". The complex will shape you up so weirdly. 

5) Did she Like my last update? Did she comment? When will she come up on FB chat ? Man, do u know we had a stupid system called A/S/L which actually helped us get through to strangers. It was simple n systematic. A= Age : for guys ( any age would do) for girls ( not a younger boy, ewwww, so what if demi likes ashton), S= Sex  (Gender) speak to the gender you wish to (opposites don't hold true anymore). and  L = Location , you better be in the same city , better still part of the city. We did not wait for THE  one, we waited for anyone who had the rt ASL. 

6) Relationship Status , Yes, today you need to put "In Relationship with XXX" on your profile. Have at least half a dozen pictures taken together and be up in your photos. Man, at least we had it easy when we wanted to Fake singlehood. 

7) 140 Characters, OMG, we stressed on Caller IDs and Phone numbers. People today stress on 140 characters of status message. Gosh with it, I would rather hold a smoke and beer, have a bunch of friends and rattle away into the night with my philosphy, do hell with your characters. Yes, you can do that too, but you will have to discuss all this next day socially (virtually) by posting pictures, liking friends status message which says "LEGEND - ARRRRRY NITE". Imagine, just doing it, and not having to "LIKE" it the next morning. 

8) Oh! I remember the times I would bump into someone after ages and be like "WTF! where have you been, what have you been upto etc etc etc. .., now it goes like " Hey! good to see you...read about your new job on FB, seems you liking it, joined the gym too - nicee...and same old girlfriend, hahaha good good...So what else is up..tell me" ...Idiot..you know everything what else will he tell you, other than " Few more things are in the pipeline, keep watching the space, my status speaks more than me"....

9) PICTURES. TAG'EM. Today, you will be snapped and it will be put up. Yes, you are a page 3. at least for 500 people on your list. So if you wearing some shirt in 4 parties in a month, it will be so evident. There will be no picture screening, and even your ( or only your) ugly looking pictures will be tagged. Before you know it you will have "likes", "comments" etc on it. If you get drunk and pass out in the farmhouse ground "Click Click" , by the time you wake up it will be in TOP NEWS with 21 comments and 29 likes. Imagine, getting up with a hangover and a picture scandal. OMG!! what pressure. 

I love technology and am on all of the sites mentioned above. In fact, why don't you follow me www.twitter.com/rishabh012. 

As much as I love the change, it has made life helluva lot easier. Communication has become one to many for everyone, a prerogative of the rich and famous earlier. But sometimes its good to sit outside, enjoy the fence side view and laugh about it all. CHEERS!! ( You Better Like this, or as Russell says - Somebodys gonna get hurt a real bad")


This Video Sums It all