Orkut : A Curse or A Blessing?

I love talk shows and happened to watch a talk show on CNN IBN today and the topic for today’s discussion was Rules for the Orkut Age.

There are hundreds of social networking sites now on available on the World Wide Web like fropper.com, hi5.com, classmates.com, orkut.com, myspace.com, bigadda.com, yaari.com, meebo.com and the list is  endless and these social networking sites on the rise now. The social networking sites have their own pros and cons. 

Orkut was awarded as the MTV Youth Icon 2007 this yr. Did MTV actually run out of ppl to add in a social networking site as one of the nominations for it?

It was in the year 1995 where it all started with the social networking site named classmates.com and since then the revolution of social networking sites continued.

There are 38.3 bllion page views every month worldwide on Orkut. 64% of the users on orkut are from Brazil, 14% from United States of America and 10% from India. Orkut alone has about 6 million users only from India, age category ranging from 15 yrs to 55 yrs. Currently Orkut is among the top 10 recalled sites brand list.

Now lets face the reality, I am a active Orkut user and there really isn’t anything wrong that I am doing on this site. Thanks to this site that I met all my 10^th grade classmates and got in touch with all of them and continue to be in touch with them constantly, catch with new things, what’s going on in their lives, catch up with some old times and chit chat. Another strong reason why I am a part of this social networking site is I met my fiancé here and I am going to get married to him soon. Technology has always fascinated me and that’s why I started using this site in the yr 2005 and have never looked back. I started bloggin in 2004 and being a active member of the World Wide Web, internet has been my life and a part of me since then.

But such sites have always been misused. Lets take a few examples here.

1. Manish Thakur ( an active user of orkut) killed his girlfriend at a hotel in Andheri and only Orkut helped the police track him down in May 2007.
2. Adnam Patrawala’s killer too got caught the same way through Orkut in Dec 2006.
3. An Airhotess claimed that that her fake profile with her pictures where posted on the Orkut and claimed her to be a “sex struck woman” in Feb 2007.
4. A school girl saw her pictures tampered and made into porn images and a fake profile was created in March 2007.

Now why do people create fake profiles and cause mental distress and trauma to the other person.

1. A 12 yr old chats everyday with her friends on Orkut. Why use the internet when you have a phone or meet them almost everyday on school.
2. A 10 yr old child has a profile on Orkut but reveals his age as 21.
3. Status: Single and Age: 17. This girl says that it has its own hazards, but we use these sites only because they help us in catching up with friends, share our pictures, gossip, talk something interesting happening around the world.

I agree that I have no right to tell other parents or children below the age of 18 that use of such sites without the knowledge of what it is actually supposed to be used for is not correct. Such social networking sites are for ppl who share common interests in a good way. The access to such sites has become so easy now that by entering your fake age you can access to any information you want. Children accessing to such sites make the parents think if they should actually allow their children to access the internet. Should the parents always be like a watch dog for their children and see what they are browsing through.

Such community sites have created a fear amongst the kids now. They say that “All of us have a need to connect to ppl, if I don’t be a part of such a community site I feel I have been left out. You check other ppl scrap book and know what’s going on in their lifes.. It shouldn’t be a breathing ground for a person.. Be there for 15 mins and get out of it.If you don’t scarp you are not a part of the elite forum. Orkut sometimes I feel is creating peer pressure”

One parent pointed on this show about what Orkut has written about them selves on the site :

1. designed to make your social life more active and stimulating
2. It is our mission to help you create a closer, more intimate network of friends. We hope to put you on the path to social bliss

The parent asks as to how the adolescent age takes these two lines as. People who are matured enough and above the age of 18 might take it in the right way but what about the children below the age of 18? Doesn’t social bliss exist in your family and friend circle?

Hasn’t Orkut created a fear amongst people with the things that have happened in the past, the murders, fake profiles and so on.

Many companies, or lets take an example, the company I worked with previously blocked orkut. I myself being in the IT Team did that because we felt that the employees where wasting time and not giving their 100% to the job, but I accept that at the end of the day I myself used to login to access the same being the admin. Many companies think that it’s a waste of time and slows down the systems and hence block Orkut. But do these employees when accessing to these social networking sites realize that the IT is actually keeping a constant watch on what you are doing? “ You don’t know what we are seeing, but my boy we know what you are seeing”.

There is a lack of education and knowledge about how to use these sites. When you launch a site, tell people how to use it and why is it supposed to be used.

Social networking sites have been useful to many people too. As I mentioned above it helped me in getting in touch with ppl whom I loved. It at the same time helps you in sharing your views and points about the things that are common between the individuals. Make your job contacts, get freelance jobs and so on.. Thanks to Orkut but I got to learn a lot of things when it came to Technology.

Here are a few points that might help a few readers to be safe on such community sites.

1. Don’t accept friend request from unknown people.
2. Don’t watch dog your children all the time when they are on the internet because it will make them feel that they are doing something wrong and will get provoked to check the same sites alone when parents are not around.
3. Keep a control on the type of pictures you put on your photo albums.
4. Keep a computer in an open area and let ppl see what u actually are doing. Use privacy settings for the kids. Tell the kids that they can post info but then they cant take it back..
5. Children spend more time from 15 mins to 20 mins only on such sites.

A word of advice in case Google /Orkut happens to see my blog/ this post, your team should make an effort to remove all porn related communities and pictures from the site.

Finally in the end I would like to say is how you use these sites is upto you, safety is a team effort and self regulation is important.

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