Profile - Committed
The social networking craze on the internet caught up only very recently. A few years ago the whole idea of creating profiles was only for signing up for an yahoo or hotmail account. The name Sabeer Bhatia was a style statement in India. Those who had not heard of this "hotmail hot male" were literally looked down upon. I remember when I went into an internet cafe during college, it was just to know how to click on a browser and see how an electronic mail works so that I "too" could brag about being e-connected (none of my classmates knew though that for almost a week at a stretch I coughed 35 rupees only to locate the browser on the desktop). Slowly, we all got used to the idea of creating profiles on websites for various reasons, mainly for signing up to open new accounts. There was a profile boom in India, particularly when the traditional alliance and match-making nuskha got an electronic media. There were profiles all around, a round little fair face on rediff saying she was convent educated and needed a husband, or a stout dark face somewhere on indiatimes saying he is a software engineer and hence should have a wife (what did her convent education or his software connection have to do with their fetching spouses for themselves, we never understood).
We the devoted surfers of the great internet revolution were not satisfied with just this. We wanted more connections, more revealations, and definitely more contradictions ;-). The world wide web found its way through the forest of expanding expectations by completely radicalising the way we sought friends, the way we married, and the way we generally worked. We now had specially designed sites wherein we could choose people based on their profiles - the way they looked (if you don't have photograph, you are not real!), the things they ate, the books they read, the films they watched, and of course no hiding those secret "fantasies" too. A drop down menu on sexual orientation too should peep out loud and clear from the profile. You may be straight, or you may be a little "curved", but everything need be on the profile.
In fact this whole profiling business did good business, for it made people honest. If you were married and not staying with your partner, then you could say you are into "open relationships", if you were single and had a partner, you could say you are into "living relationships", if you were "committed" (yes, thats a new term in the profiling lexicon) and not sure what to do with that lazy bum partner of yours, then you could just say you are "bi-curious". And if none of those partners are just not working for your ego, you could simply say you were net working!
The "net" result of all this social "net"working on the inter"net" is that we are all caught in the "net"! Maybe some day a profile on the net would replace the need for passports and we would all truly be global "net"izens. There would be no visas and no work permits, only a profile with a photograph in place.
We the devoted surfers of the great internet revolution were not satisfied with just this. We wanted more connections, more revealations, and definitely more contradictions ;-). The world wide web found its way through the forest of expanding expectations by completely radicalising the way we sought friends, the way we married, and the way we generally worked. We now had specially designed sites wherein we could choose people based on their profiles - the way they looked (if you don't have photograph, you are not real!), the things they ate, the books they read, the films they watched, and of course no hiding those secret "fantasies" too. A drop down menu on sexual orientation too should peep out loud and clear from the profile. You may be straight, or you may be a little "curved", but everything need be on the profile.
In fact this whole profiling business did good business, for it made people honest. If you were married and not staying with your partner, then you could say you are into "open relationships", if you were single and had a partner, you could say you are into "living relationships", if you were "committed" (yes, thats a new term in the profiling lexicon) and not sure what to do with that lazy bum partner of yours, then you could just say you are "bi-curious". And if none of those partners are just not working for your ego, you could simply say you were net working!
The "net" result of all this social "net"working on the inter"net" is that we are all caught in the "net"! Maybe some day a profile on the net would replace the need for passports and we would all truly be global "net"izens. There would be no visas and no work permits, only a profile with a photograph in place.
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