Indians love social networking

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