Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Cobweb Of Social Networking


We live in an electronic age, or to say in contemporary parlance : an e-age. Well, people here are suffering from a syndrome of putting the letter 'e' almost before everything.We have e-mail, e-ticket, e-bill, e-banking, e-networking and e-dating as well !!!
I guess in years to come we will soon witness e-births and e-cremations. (Pun intended!)
Nevertheless, not long before, all of these 'e-activities' were taken up in person physically instead of just logging in, typing a few words, clicking a few buttons and then eventually logging out, sitting back and watching the 'e' do its work. It's indeed phenomenally magical. But its equally unorthodox, unconventional and lackluster, to say the least.The internet today is replete with various sites of its own kind. From Facebook, the mother of all social networking sites, to Twitter, from Instagram to Flickr, from Flipkart to E-bay, there is a litany of such examples to follow.
Undoubtedly, internet has not only made life more easy and comfortable, but it has also helped people in staying more connected and bolstered the feeling of social oneness among them.So far, so good.

But what internet has also done in the course is often forgotten : it has rendered some vulnerability to every individual using the internet.Looking at the trends today, it is easy to conclude that the people, particularly youngsters, are addicted to the social networking sites of the likes of FB, Twitter etc.This has two-pronged effect - one, their sense of friendship and knowing people is contracting to the internet community only. Youngsters prefer to make friends over the internet and some 'out-of-mind' characters even go on to as far as dating someone they have known only over the internet. No sane soul in this world would support that idea but then there are always exceptions.
Two, the information shared or rather broadcasted on these social networking sites makes an individual's personal credentials and private information easily accessible to people.This facilitates unwanted people and intruders to peep into one's life and transgress one's privacy. No level of security can avoid such incidents because more often than not, sooner or later , there always is a glitch that can be exploited and taken advantage of to access one's personal information.
If we talk of organized Cyber-crime then the situation is even worse.The biggest and the most dangerous cases of frauds and heists have been perpetuated over the internet. Cases of money laundering involving huge amounts of cash are littered all over the web. Recently, several of the banks operating in India declared a cumulative loss of close to 6,600 crores because of cyber money laundering in the periods of Jan-Aug, 2012. Further a survey by Norton claims
one out of three internet users is a victim of cyber-fraud. The numbers are undoubtedly alarming and uneasing. Yet, people take this with reckless attitude and do not adhere to the rules of online banking strictly. Their nonchalant disposition is one of the reasons for rampant cases of cyber-frauds.
Optimists believe that a person is equally likely of being a target of an actual robbery and getting mugged of physical cash. But what they fail to realize is this - Cyber frauds are pretty more likely to be the mode of crime in this world of ever-increasing tech-saviness. Add to it that the perpetrators of these crimes are difficult to nab, given the sophisticated nature of the crime.
So the point to be driven home is this - the comforts and facilities that this 'e' age has showered upon us, offered just at the click of a button, should be used to the fullest. But it shouldn't be made a habit and a necessity, because sometimes the conventional way out is the best and the safest way out.


Pseudonym : h!v


Advertisement - The Inside Story


What started of as a way to make one's product known to the public, has now turned into a dirty game, whose only objective is to appease the public and tease them into buying ones product, even if it's not exactly what they need. The advertising industry has vowed to deceive the public by making them fall prey to one of their many charades and end up proving their marketing sops a perfect bait.
Celebrities and individuals of public appeal can easily be spotted endorsing a variety of products in add campaigns and on TV. However, there is one really important question that comes to the surface from here. Are these products really useful to the extent that our much-revered and fanatically-followed celebrities force us to believe???

Their personality juxtaposed with their aura, charisma and public image has such captivating effect on the minds of the people that they cease to cogitate the utility of the product.
Nevertheless, what really intrigues me is this question - Do our celebrities ever use the product that they endorse with so much conviction, in the first place???
Do we really know and for that part, should we really believe that Katrina Kaif's long silky hair, that she loves to flaunt, are the way they are because of a constant nourishment from the shampoo she endorses??? That seems a bit too hard to get into the head, at least for hardliners like me.
Furthermore, do you really believe when you see a Hrithik Roshan jumping 10ft down a cliff into water after having gulped down a soft drink??? And before jumping he chants the famous catch line of the even more famous soft-drink, to make believe the naive people that all the adrenalin that was needed to execute this super human effort was managed as a by-product of the drink. If it's true then it is expedient for the Sports Ministry in India to make that drink the official refreshment of the Olympic contagion we send every four years to different places around the world only to witness ignominious defeat in most of the sporting events, if not all.
The truth however is far from what we perceive. The celebrities endorse the product to receive fat pay cheques and contracts. But the public taken by the aura of their favorite celebrities end up shopping a not-so-useful product.
So advertising, in today's world of cut-throat competition, has become more about luring or tempting the customers to buy a product than the mere traditional motive of making it known amongst the people.
Another perfect trick that people succumb to is what I would call the "conditions-apply" catch. So the companies, to all extent, try to prove a deal way more profitable and favorable to people than it really is by using just two words and an asterisk - "*conditions apply".
They advertise rampantly about a particular deal offered or a discount given. Tempting, so much so these deals sound, that the customers can't help but to check it once. This however proves to be a futile mistake because the articulate salesperson inveigles them into buying that deal. The gullible customer only realizes later that he/she did not qualify for the deal or got only a fraction of what was promised because of a small miniscule footer - in possibly the minimum font size - whispering in a muffled tone: "Dude!!! You almost got mugged. This is what would happen if you would fail to notice me. Better luck next time."
A study also proves that a customer actually ends up spending more money when he , or precisely 'she', shops during a sale. That's because of the frame of mind a person is in when shopping in a sale. A false feeling of "I'm saving money, if I'm buying something now" dominates the thought process and by the time that feeling subsides half the work is already done. Indeed the customer might have saved some money, but effectively he/she has spent much more in proportion.
But we, the people, innocent as we are, have a relatively fading memory. We are foolish and blind and make such 'Oh-my-God-I-wasted-it' type investments again and yet again.
In the end no more serious talks and absolutely no suggestions, just two more words - Happy Shopping!!!

Pseudonym : h!v