Facebook, Orkut, social networking, and 'the pests'

There's a new kinda breed.... the Social Networking Pest.
Of late, I have been come into contact with this very kind.
Earlier, on Orkut, it was easy to weed out the ones from amongst the e-friends who seemed to have a different agenda altogether - but, now, on many a socially networking site online, especially on Facebook, these very people are likely to have a brush with the users, and the experience can be anything between mildly unpleasant to grossly obnoxious.
It's an irritating phenomenon - these people just want to get on your nerves in the guise of e-friendship, they want to get unnaturally intimate, they judge you, they pester you like nuts!
You would wonder, 'What have I done to deserve this!'
Omigosh! They try to contact you at every single pretext with the sole objective of disturbing you emotionally, maybe they want you to join them in their psychologically dysfunctional tirades. You are asked all kinds of silly things. Every attempt to ignore them makes them even more desperate. They keep posting ridiculous stuff on your wall, or as messages, mail you spam content, and if, God forbid, they get hold of your cellphone number, they'd bombard you with messages. Do they all suffer from Attention Deficiency Disorder? That's what you'd wonder. You'd try to block these irritating creatures, but such attempts would turn futile as they'd soon be found to resurface under some other garb, on some phoney profile, and, worse still, they might get really nasty and revengeful and even attempt to hack your account.
In the recent past, Facebook has been taking, or trying to take, stringent measures against these pests, many improved features and filters have come up whereby one can have special privacy settings, and there's now a more active supervision by the authorities. I commend them for that. And I hope that we may curb the pest syndrome soon, very soon.
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PostScript: Let me inform the ones who do not know me that they are welcome to be my e-friends; in fact, all - but the pests - are welcome to join me on Facebook too. The list of my e-friends on Orkut have become too large and hence I am not very eager to accept new friends there, it becomes difficult to interact with a very large number of friends, you see. Hence, all you have to do to be my e-friend is too click on the link below and send me a friend request, or message me..... e-friendship is healthy, it's an absolute pleasure for me to buzz with you on an array of subjects, just make sure that it isn't inappropriate, crossing the norms of social decorum and courtesy, and that our online exchanges doesn't make either of us uncomfortable in any way.
Anindo Sen

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Orkutting continues......

Even amidst all the Twitter and Facebook hype-n-hoopla, Orkut remains the favorite of many an e-friend of mine.
I myself am quite hooked to Orkutting, still.
Orkut has introduced me to e-friendship. And I have been enjoying it to the fullest.
I haven't got bored with the concept (elaborated upon in an earlier post) unlike many of my friends and acquaintances.
I think it all depends on what one seeks from a social networking site....
to find out if a certain social networking site works for them or not.
This post is a tribute to Orkut and the Orkutting phenomenon, which may have morphed into several avatars, but the concept of e-friendship and Orkutting
go hand-in-hand... still.
The site [http://www.orkut.co.in] itself has changed in a major way this month.
Though there were teething problems with all the newness that was intended
by the owners/administrators of the site..... the users were not much in favor of all the privacy controls that were toeing the line of Facebook and other competing social networking sites; within a period of 48 hours Orkut had to switch back to many of the original features instead..... yet, there are the several new features NOW, which have given Orkut a new look (with the user's discretion, of course).
ENDWORD: Orkutting continues; in a major way FOR ME.
In fact, it rocks!