Waste Book !!!

Like my contemporaries of the internet age and the social networking culture I also follow the ritual of beginning my day by paying obeisance to facebook. Here, I am greeted by tons of information in various hues and forms- or should I say fonts- wishing me good morning and smirking at my helplessness .

Following are some of the examples

• “Peter took the quiz what were you in your past life” (and result is that , you were the same ar****le as you are now )
• Mohini changed her profile pic ( 6th time in as many mins)
• Mahesh Became member of the group ‘I Shit everyday’
• Vishal is pulling his hairs out ( Just reached puberty and is all zapped by this new development )
• “Rohit took how well you know Meenakshi (His girlfriend) and the result is just 10% “(Now he will get a strong kick between his legs)

A very significant amount of time on internet is being spend maneuvering through this rabble and scrolling up and down a few kilometers of cyber space everyday. (I wonder if loitering around is a crime in cyber law)

The need to communicate is becoming an addiction to express. It seems people, who are generally calculative with words and expressions, constrained by societal norms , are expressing themselves with vengeance in these social platforms.
This development however, is leaving enormous amount of residue in the form of trivial quizzes, synthetic status messages and useless groups. Zillions of man hours are being spent in processing this Toxic waste of information. I wonder if there is any parallel in the history of this kind of wastage of Human time and effort in producing something so much without value.
Internet is one of the cruelest paradoxes of our times. It has brought tremendous amount of useful information (Like this blog ;) ) accessible and people together. However, the pollution of these information factories (read social networking sites and other such forums) has started affecting our collective productivity by providing us a readily available tool of distraction and procrastination.

I would like to quote Doris Lessing,2007 noble laureate in literature.

“We have never thought to ask, how will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by this internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free”

Though I do not completely agree with Lessing , lest be labeled as the cranky, insecure creature from dark ages, her argument does merit some attention from the intelligentsia.

This inexorable rise of internet waste may soon reach alarming levels with adverse affects more perceptible than now. The only way to contain will be to exercise self restrain. Once a week off from the social networking and chatting would not be bad for a start.
I am sure if someone wants to reach you for all its worth and urgency, will catch hold of you any how and vice versa.