FACE VALUE AT A PRICE

EGYPT PROTEST ON FACEBOOK SCREENSHOTS

$50billion is no ordinary amount in times of economic recession. However that is the amount invested by Goldman Sachs to upgrade FB to make it more fab and if reports from Houston are to be true, the revamped FB is all set to woo you from March 10th. However this platform has been used extensively for furthering a number of causes. For example, Martyrs day was celebrated in Tahrir square not after some announcement by a political force, but rather because a group of youngsters planned it so, on the networking site.

A CRY FOR DADA ON FACEBOOK

Sharing a page, today has replaced the “word of the mouth”. Ideas are shared on a global platform, beyond boundaries, within the fraction of a second. If rumours and sources are to be true, a protest has been planned in Morocco by facebook users taking inspiration from the turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia. But interestingly enough the govt. has okayed the endeavour and not curbed it. It’s not only politics that plays a part of the general uprising, even the exclusion of sourav Ganguly from team KKR has been explicitly argued for on the platform. As a fallout, poor team co-owner Shahrukh had to respond saying- “I pray that people of Bengal give us a chance to play without controversy and pressure. Don’t give up on us.” 

 
This presently is the power of facebook; a social networking site that in terms of business has left few of the biggest names running for more. With the progress that this networking site is making in all spheres whether politics or personal life, Mark Zukerberg, the facebook creator has definitely created a machine that generates an army out of the civil society. However facebook and the inflicted virtual dope that the youngsters are up for are facing some flak. Sociologist says-“it cuts the social life of a person and restricts his action to an online virtual one”. But that depends on individual discretion of balancing acts after all. To top it up, that’s not all folks. The next time your mom tells you to switch over the facebook hangover, tell her, that facebook handed a 1.7crore job to one of the IITians. Who knows what might be next up on line when you chat with a stranger?

 
--Amartya Saha