Facebook Friends Classified
 |
| Friendship beyond boundaries |
Remember
the movie Cast Away in which the
hero Tom Hanks lands on an uninhabited
island and out of sheer desperation draws the face of a man on volleyball. He calls it Wilson and spends the entire time on
the island by talking to it. He in fact has several arguments while conversing
with his FRIEND Wilson which never spoke back to him. With great difficulty he
builds a raft and tries to set ‘sail’ on it during which ‘Wilson’, his only ‘friend’
falls from the raft making him feel lonely again. This is a film I liked the most as it gave a new definition to
friendship with one of the two friends, the volleyball namely Wilson which
obviously couldn't speak a word but gave a strong feeling of reassurance to its
creator friend, Tom Hanks.
If
there is any one common deed that every man does irrespective of his other
works, it is making friendships. We make friends (of course we do make enemies too
but that is not the subject matter of this column) at every stage of our life:
as a small child, as an adolescent, as an adult, in old age, as a school
student, as a college goer, as an employee and the list can go on endlessly.
In this digital age,
friendship has not only taken a new turn but also redefined the way friendships
are made after Mark Zuckerberg launched the social networking site Facebook. FB as it has come to be popularly
known has created ample opportunities to make friendships at the click of a
button, made people not to feel socially
or emotionally isolated and wiped
out all borders in making friendships. FB has become an integral part of
everyday life of millions of people across the world. Earlier, people could make
friendship within an age group or community or common interest but now a 12
year old can comfortably make friendship with a 72 year old via FB. Today a dog can make friendship with a cat and a cat with a mouse; a tiger
with a deer and a deer with a lion. All thanks to Facebook.
While
there are people who feel great about their number of FB friends, there are
others who are happy to have few good ‘responsive’ and ‘caring’ ones. I do have my share of friends on FB each of
whom I like, respect and most of all, treat them to be precious.
In
an earlier blog post titled Mobile
Tele’phoney’ in 2010 I have classified mobile users into different
categories based on their usage style. Here in this column I have attempted to
classify FB friends in different bird
categories because FB has redefined the old saying to birds of a different feather flock together. Read, enjoy and tell
your friends in which category they fall. You are at liberty to put me in a
category of your choice. Here it goes:
The Peacocks – are ‘beautiful’ friends, high ‘achievers’
and feel themselves perched on higher pedestals in life. They desire their
posts to be liked by all but rarely press a like button on others’ posts. They are
of the opinion that you are privileged to have them in your friend’s list.
The Crows – are those friends who voice your
problems the moment they come to know of it. They share and post everything
that is helpful to all others in the community just as crows call for attention
of all other crows when they notice food or another crow in trouble. 
The Pigeons – are friends who are peace lovers
and don’t comment on any post they find to be controversial or that is likely
to ‘hurt’ anyone else even remotely and do not want to put themselves in imagined
‘troubles’. 
The Parrots – are ‘sweet’ friends who will
share whatever you post. You will love these friends as much as yourself for
the same reason and are rare. 
The Ducks – are friends who are connected
with you and then you are not sure whether they are still around because they
sit pretty and rarely post or like or comment on any of your posts. 
The Owls – are friends who post, comment and
like only during nights as they are busy with their day-time activities and so
have no time at all for FB during day. 
The Cranes – are friends who have the ability
to chat with you for long hours on messenger just as a crane patiently stands
on one leg for long time until it catches its fish. 
The Hawks – are friends who keep a watch on
all your activities. They may not like, comment or share your posts but true to
their name, keep an ‘eye’ on all your statuses which you will realize only when
you meet them in person.
The Penguins – are cool friends and have all the
cool time in the world to write long status posts (almost as good and as long
as Penguin published books). 
The Pelicans - are friends who visit your page
once in a while and then vanish to come back again after a long time. 
The Woodpeckers – are friends who peck (read post)
constantly on FB posting their individual achievements or that of others at
regular intervals to motivate other friends.
The Roosters – are those friends who post statuses
(normally quotes that give ‘gyan’) which ‘wake’ you up to ‘new’ ‘realities’.
The Cuckoos – are those friends who post
statuses on their good experiences of food, travel, entertainment or any other
leisurely pastimes encouraging others to try the same.
The Kingfishers – are those friends who post on
every achievement of theirs. They declare to the world that they are moving
towards becoming a ‘king’ in their profession.
The Sparrows – have few friends on their list
and are reluctant visitors of not only your page but also FB.
Just
as all birds are important in our overall ecological system, all types of
friends are needed for life to be colorful and joyful. Love, Birds!!! Love, Friends!!! Love, Family!!! Love, Community!!! Love,Nature!!! Like, FB which has completely changed the way people move and live.
Comments
Post a Comment