Indians love social networking
Pen friends are passe! Internet social networks offering online friends is the buzzword. With over 20 million online users above the age of 15 in India, the social networks are becoming very popular. Among them Orkut, the leading internet social network has eight per cent of its members logging in from India with almost three-fourth of online Indians looking for friendship.
Trending Photos
New Delhi: Pen friends are passe! Internet
social networks offering online friends is the buzzword.
With over 20 million online users above the age of 15 in
India, the social networks are becoming very popular. Among
them Orkut, the leading internet social network has eight per
cent of its members logging in from India with almost
three-fourth of online Indians looking for friendship.
Fropper.Com, myspace.Com and pyardostihai.Com are friendship
sites that cater to this niche populace - they are very
popular with many netizens who want to meet people and explore
life.
Divyesh Patel of Pyardostihai.Com which has an active
member count of 60 per cent Indians (with a fair share from
NRIs) feels online friendships have the unique power of
bonding different people. He says "...Majority of our members
are from both US and India so this particular mix creates a
certain kind of bond between the two kinds of populations."
Friendships across borders spanning thousand of
kilometers are not uncommon in this age where heart-beats are
transferred through optical fibers, feels Patel.
Old friends and school-mates, college-mates even relatives
(that one knew just existed) are appearing on the web-horizon.
Says Lily Agarwal, "The networks help me keep in touch with
some friends with whom I thought I had lost touch... For
others my cell does the trick".
For others reconnecting seems to be passe as they are
looking for adventures and possible dates who seem decent
enough to be 'promoted' from the rank of net friends to
real-life friends. The IT professionals, who have at least
10-12 hours of internet access from office itself, seem to be
the ones who live up this concept.
Munia Banerjee employed with a web development company
says, "The guys on these networks are not always the ones who
they claim to be ..."
Renowned psychologist Dr. Samir Parikh feels the
"anonymous" nature of the internet-bred friendships is a fact
to be focused on. "The combination of sexuality, loneliness
and the need for companionship adds up to make these
relationships."
As salaries and material benefits have witnessed an
upswing, some feel that they are lonely and a void does exist
which needs to be filled up, and soon. While old-timers are
still to come in terms with scraps, messages and faceless
friends, reluctant parents have started to accept their teenage daughters’ fascination with online friends.
One mother hidden contempt is obvious when she says, "How can you
(be) friends with people you haven't seen... But then times are
slowly changing!"
The best part of these social networks lies in the hearts
of the likes of Shamshad Khan and his friend in Pakistan.
Shamshad met a girl in Pakistan during his visit a few years
back. While her promise "See you in India..." did not take
place, the friends reconnected and now regularly communicate
in one of the internet social networks.
Marriages may still be made in heaven, but for now the web
seems to be the place-to-be for making friends and
reuniting with ones who have grown apart!
Bureau Report
Advertisement
Live Tv
Advertisement