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Elo again!
Yesh, it's been about a week since I held my head above the bush for the passionate skeet shooting that is referred to here as commenting. Of course, I'd call it trolling. But let's leave that for another day.
Since I haven't ranted in a long time, this is probably the best opportunity to let the heat out. Come on now, everybody needs some cooling in the summer. No need to worry though, I come in peace. Since people have actually started reading what I'm writing, I can't possibly start slinging mud at anyone around. So, I've decided to flame the next best thing - communities of such people. No, I do not plan to be racist. What I was referring to was Fa(e)cebook. There is only about so far you can take online socialization without indulging in name calling or predatorial tactics. Apart from being a breeding ground for online bullies and 40-year-olds wanting to be your friend, the site seems to serve no purpose.
I joined Orkut about 2 years back, and hey, it was a big thing for me then. I had only heard of FB in brief mentions and finding it lacklusture, I pledged my support for the new "in" thing in Indian culture. My infatuation barely lasted a month. I stayed on though, lurked and posted every now and then. It became an old flame that I started avoiding with increasing frequency. Thankfully, unlike other past flames, it didn't haunt my dreams. About a month back, with my return to Chennai I was coaxed to join FB. With my existence a month long, I find it poor - and that is to say the least. The interface is worse than Orkut's (I did hear it was better at some point in the past) and the funcionality dismal. With little in the way of notification settings, it proves as irritating as, if not more than Orkut. A recent post by a friend of mine christening it Quizbook seems appropriate. Besides, I don't even have the sympathy I had for Orkut because of its parent group.
Even if this is to be a standard rant, I can't leave out all reason. All steam and disappointment aside, the movement of people to FB from other places is an interesting phenomenon. Sites such as Hi5 deserve no less, while Orkut does seem to be an unintentional victim. The migration of a large part of the Orkut community to FB is by no means mere chance. It is much more a matter of timing, and westernization.
That's right, I'm blaming this one on the ape-effect. When Orkut was released back in whenever, it was something cool for all the students/kids to join and they could run around asking people if they were on and feel superior when answered in the negative. This culture pretty much carried on until these kids grew up and started meeting more people - some of whom had FB accounts and informed them how much bigger it was and how much cooler it was to be a part of something that was so American. Orkut was from the west too, but the scales tipped against it once the rapid multiplication of Indians on it started. It remains, to date, filled with Indians - with a population constantly vying to be in the top 3 on it. Filled with fellow citizens who weren't as cool as the dudes from Facebook, Orkut was abandoned like an old toy with the fascination, freshness and cool factor of FB raking in the users like a swarm of flies. On a psychological level, this event is but an example of people moving from one group to another in the hope of appearing at a higher stratum of society after having seen some proof of the shift. This may have come in the form of cousins/friends/NRIs insisting it was much more in.
I've probably drawn the ire of FB fanatics with this, but I do stick by my point. As local and useless as it may be, I stand by Orkut. Personally, I find no difference between the two. As I mentioned, both suck. And badly, at that. At least I don't get invites to play Travian on Orkut.