The Red Notification

Social networking given us the exposure that we never thought we had before. Gone are the old days where an appearance in local television, you’ll call each and every one of your friend to remind them about your impending appearance. Timing has to be perfect and you expect everyone punctually be at their couch sipping coffee or munching any sorts tid bits to witness your grand appearance, now, the internet offers a time wrap ability where you conveniently press play, rewind and even more, share!

Social networking delivered not only as a stage to voice out, but it served as a news source. It’s a brand-less news outlet, thus, its truly a ‘peoples’ channel which the people become the journalist. The people’s news can be as accurate and quicker than that conventional type. Now, that collective voice can be tracked through ‘trending’, anything that gets people talking, it will top out the chart. And we can forget the wrath of television channel hidden agendas forced into our mind on daily basis.

You can say goodbye to the television. The idiot box is ripe for a makeover, more realistically thrown off the cliff into a lombong ( mining pond ), the television in my rented apartment is longing for a touch and had been long sleeping under a warmth of dust blanket, and those millennium babies that saw one of these idiot boxes though the screen is touchable and interactive by all means.

Thus social network had tastefully feed our hunger for entertainment. We now know what your hipster friend is listening so you can be hip as well. Those new bands who thought they would die without a record contract now can operate on their own as promotion is done virtually free virally, and distribution? Thank whom? Thank those social networks.

Social networking is not a new thing, those 80s and early 90s baby cannot deny the original ‘facebook’ is literally a ‘facebook’. It’s a physical book that is being passed around and penned down with biodata, favourite food drinks, movies and books – and for those rare occurrences – with full colour photographs! Whoa! Now social network had travelled into a new paper-less realm, beginning with Friendster followed by MySpace and learning through its predecessor mistakes, Facebook lives until today to become one of the world most valuable brands that trades on people personal information which is voluntarily given.

Social networking is becoming the extended version of ourselves. Lacking in touch with our extended self can be detrimental – some may feel ‘incomplete’ for neglecting their virtual presence. That red notification signal has some hypnotizing effect that makes us want to click them. We feel rewarded, happy and wanted by any or some way.  

Off the grid

Some are bold enough to live ‘off-the-grid’. Just like how we heard people living money-free inside an RV or dedicating oneself to become vegetarian, some had the guts to reject social network and firmly stood their ground regardless the thousand advantage proponents of social networking are throwing at them.

Social networking is akin to waters to thread in, you have to be skillful where the current is and what the tide tells. In dangerous water infested with falsehood, fear, uncertainty and doubt ( FUD ) we can be easily swayed by emotions. At the comfort of our living room, we feel confident to speak or share as we will. At the same time we feel sheltered from any consequences from the thing that we speak or share.

We may be swayed to believe that a Middle-eastern leader army just beheaded a child from an unverified photo, a famous cookie brand in Malaysia knowingly uses lard in its food manufacturing, a river had become a dumping ground for a rare-earth plant. All these FUD that exploit our unwavering concern in matters such as children, religion and rights. And we felt responsible to share them without the responsibility to verify its truth or question them.  

With social networking, we have become more susceptible to pigeonhole our friends into circles. Of those circle, we generally had the liberal circle where we allow them to view our private photos being half drunk at a club. The conservative circle had been restricted from having those privileges due to the comments and critiques they might throw at our face. Social networking had inherited the mechanism of distorted realism where oneself become truthful with selective audience. Others are just wayang.

Social network spawn a syndrome which is clinically untreatable – the TMI (too-much-information) syndrome where oneself had to share everything, from the meals they about to ingest to a pair of cute socks they worn and those messages from their phones. From that on, people are carried away to announce every personal decision they made to the whole world. We are not taught in school about what is networking and personal sharing, clearly the lines had been blurred.  

Its not the people fault anyway, social networking likes them. Plus, there is continuous demand for this kind of information. Just be careful because this readily available information can possibly bite back. It’s a matter of time – sooner or later.

Looking forward to the end of this era some had started the social network death watch. A ticking clock which foresees the demise of Facebook to the likes of MySpace and Friendster. Facebook dead? Maybe, someday…but social network is here to stay, for as long as people hunger and keep fishing for attention, the red notification retains its hypnotizing power in a different reincarnation, shapes and form.