Or-Cut-ting

I caught on to the Orkut phenomenon more than an year back. Initially, it was just another thing, but lately, the fascination of finding people that I haven’t talked to or seen in years was too much to resist. So, I became a regular. Being a part of communities that could possibly link me to my classmate from 80s and 90s seemed like an interesting thing to do!
However, three things that have managed to piss me off completely–

1. Communities ‘ Culture – 99 out of 100 communities are full of Hitlers (Hitters—letchers). They all have the same kinda discussion threads – rate the profile pic, would you go out on a date with the person above you, blah blah. Guys tend to hit communities/threads with a seemingly higher number of girls. Girls tend to stick to communities where someone catches their imagination. After all, Bheja Fry reminded me that even girls can be Thurkeys! J

Now now, there are communities where something sensible is done/discussed, files/books etc are shared. But I am sure, even in those communities, there are n number of threads with n*100+ posts on such idiotic threads. While an orkut-present reader of this post may feel like kicking me for being generalized, remember that this outburst is about the masses.. If you belong to the classes, well, you don’t need to take it to your heart! And anyway, you’d know if you are the one I am talking that.

1. Scrap Snooping – This is by far the most irritating phenomenon. Here is a snapshot of the questions I have received on mail/chat in the last few weeks –
   1. Who is Person X? bahut chat kar rahe ho aajkal?
   2. Who is Person Y? kaafi interested lag rahi hai tum mein?
   3. You got engaged? Saw that scrap in your scrapbook! And you didn’t even tell me?
   4. You’ve got 64 fans? That’s awesome!!
   5. Waise to busy rehte ho.. orkut pe scrap karne ka time kahan se milta hai?

Here is my retort –

A,B -Person X and Y are (of course) two women (why would you maaro that wise quip otherwise).. I studied with in 1994-1995. How is that your business? Person Y is an old time friend and we just lost touch somehow. Yes, there is lots to discuss! Is she interested? I don’t mind!

C -No! I haven’t got engaged! But if you don’t have a sense of humor yourself, you can ask dumb questions, rather than cracking wise quips.

D- well. As a matter of fact, on my screen also, it says 64 fans! Wow! Technology has really come a long way! I don’t know why they are my fans. And is there something awesome about having fans? Don’t think so! I know of people trading fan following as well on orkut. “You be my fan, I will be yours” kinds.

E- I reply to orkut messages in bulk at 2-3 in the night. If you are up for it, I can give you a callback at 3 as well. Game? Plus, I don’t have to shout at the top of my voice to send you a scrap. It doesn’t disturb others working along with me!

And in any case, what were you doing reading the scraps of others? Don’t you have anything better to do in life than to pry into someone else’s?

At one time, I was surprised to see a friend deleting all the scraps he was getting. His reaction – people tend to misuse this information. There are addresses, phone numbers, email ids that people leave on scraps, without realizing that this is information in the public domain. Let me not be the reason someone gets in a mess, more so if that someone is me!

Well, Point well taken!

1. Stat-surfing – Again.. you can see a lot of people competing on numbers. Person X has 600 friends, while I have only 400. “Hey.. I am posting the 1000^th scrap!” “25 testimonials? Neat!”

Let the kids do that. Grown ups- please act like grown ups!

And I still love Orkut. Its good to get back in touch with so many friends from yesteryears!