Social Media is a Pied Piper

As a part of the ISTD conference the last session of the first day was conducted by Rajiv Dhingra the founder of WAT media. Who spoke about Social Media and how it has really taken off and gave us a critical insight and rubbished the myth that Gen Y grew up with social media at all time.

The social Media revolution took off only in 2004-05 when Hi-5 began to operate and people could start reaching out to their friends, peers through a digital platform and the people who took up to it were between the age of 18-22. Why you ask ? Blame it on the hormones is what I would say ! Social needs started to grow and individuals needed to be a part of it as it was the coolest thing around. Imagine what it is like for an Eighteen year old to have the latest edition of A Ray Ban Glasses or Levi jeans. It morphed into a type of craving which people have and it gave them a second chance of virtual existence as the Digital friends you have may have never met you and you can talk about your positives to them and start boasting but no one will recognize. Then like a Blitzkrieg “Orkut” Emerged and it quashed Hi-5 and it was a rage because it was not open to public and you had to be invited by someone who was already a member to be a part of it !! What more would you need to add to the Ego than being invited to the newest thing on the planet and it was drawing a huge crowd in India and it gave us a global platform to connect and collaborate with Global friends.

For eg: I had friends in orkut who were from brazil and they were friends with me because they wanted to sharpen their English skills and I networked with them to get access to the latest Music and coolest downloads which led to a symbiotic association but soon the darker side of orkut emerged and there were issues about privacy and profile hacking which triggered women to move out and slowly but conformingly emerged Facebook with improved privacy and security and soon the women folks moved out to that and the men soon followed facebook offered more than Orkut as it allowed you to post notes, tag people, Update what you were doing and play games like Farmville and the best you just showed it to people who you want not to everyone. But as you have noticed a trend emerged and soon came Twitter but unlike its predecessors Twitter was a real time people to celebrities interaction and something which Rajeev Mentioned and I was in total line with it “Twitter is an Exhibitionist and submissive platform” people follow you to be in touch with you appears over the top.. But it has not only been social networks business networks like LinkedIn have also been growing rapidly and In India. LinkedIn has added 2-5 million members in the past Six Months and the number does not seem to go down this all just point to one direction that people need connectivity people need an appearance be it physically or digitally

Human Relations and Media

When you talk about people and perception the biggest contributor to it is media and this has a profound impact. How?? Being in a profession which deals with humans and which ask people not to make judgment of people based on appearance ironically I am blessed to be in an environment which exactly does not do that. I was talking with my friend and she was talking about her family and she was commenting how harsh her mother and how bad she is and that a mother should not be like that and all. I thought how does a person know how a mother is supposed to behave??? The following are the major sources
1) Surroundings
2) Neighbors and friends
3) Media

Now why do I highlight media is that in an environment where social interaction is lowering day by day the electronic media is rampaging and portrayals of mothers as larger than life who will sacrifice everything for their kids but I just would reality to be as true as that and it is not ??? Why because every individual is different with different characteristics and they behave different the portrayal of a Chinese to be a martial arts expert or a German to an engineer won’t take us anywhere and the Biggest contributor to it the cinema is bad in India and horrible in Tamilnadu. It is a simple deal you make a good movie which is logical and good we will ensure you don't make a movie again and that is the sorry state of affairs we are forced to cope with unless our people grow over and make their own judgments stand back Sardars you are the butt of jokes stand back blonds you are brains are not given and everyone else

Cheers

Arvind Srikantan