I just realized that my friend has gathered more than a thousand supporters for his cause within the day over his facebook page and what’s more, someone actually has put him in touch with a really influential person in the field that he is venturing out. Who knows, he might actually realize his dream before he has a chance to dream it. Welcome to the world of starting a revolution in a day’s work.
In an age where communication has become more a domain of the written than the spoken word, the age old picture of a leader over a microphone motivating his troops has all but remained as the profile picture of the movement you are gathering support for. Today it happens to be the a few strokes of the keyboard, a click of the mouse and viola! A chain reaction that is only limited by the number of people that you know and are answering your call at any waking hour which we know is anytime today, tomorrow or yesterday!
While this is great news for people with a fire in their belly and that insatiable urge to change the world while climbing Mt Kilimanjaro on a single liter of oxygen carrying an injured dog on one shoulder and realizing the cure to cancer on the way to the base camp, my ilk of the round belly and the portly countenance is greatly perturbed. These specimen of the human world whom I call brethren have now had the last excuse for not giving their posteriors the regular exercise much like the rest of the contacts on their facebook profiles taken from. This entire initiative of being able to reach thousands at the click of a button no longer lets us hide behind the excuse of a sore throat for not being able to really voice our opinion and take a stand for what we really believe in. Well I am assuming that carpal syndrome is really a lame excuse to replace the sore throat of course!
I would have liked nothing better than to be allowed to spend my days in peace knowing that the worries of the world were in better hands and voices with loudspeakers but damn this phenomenon of social networking, I have to look and act interested at the beck and call of all my those who I so happily (and absent mindedly in hind sight) accepted as my friends over a single request on orkut, facebook, etc. if I had had any way of knowing the amount of responsibility that I was inviting by the very act of opening an account on facebook, with God as my witness I assure you, my faithful reader, this god fearing soul would have cut off his typing fingers before they chose an available user name.
But the one thing that might be a silver lining in all this is the fact that the ubiquitous-ness of campaigns on the net seeking support has allowed the signee to actually hide behind one to explain inactivity regarding the other while it has given a psychological comfort to the petitioner who opens his account and takes heart in the ticking counter of signers to his efforts. In a true sense of the word, this happens to be a win-win relationship.
Which then brings me to the point of this entire rambling – people are now voicing their opinions more freely and frequently than ever before and expecting a lot of the audience to react to the same. However, just like moi, how many sign on only to be able to life their thumbs and acknowledge the next time they see the petitioner that they are behind them….BEHIND!! I wonder what the active rate of interest is really. Social networking may be a fantastic phenomenon, but what part of it is actually active and what part of it is just a response to a customary roll call?
Well whatever it may be, I am sure people will try even more to be more like my friend in the first paragraph than just rely on mere flesh mounds like me to take their endeavours to the next level and realize their passions. I am sure there will be someday, something moving enough for even the likes of me to sit up and take notice but until then, my dear facebook contact, count me standing in a queue behind you. My click confirms my presence and my friendship. Do not ask any further of me for I fear I may start a revolution of my own against this establishment of revolutions. Viva la revolucion!
