We can precisely call this age “the Era of social media” as social media is a crucial part of our lives. Previously, those people who are associated with MNC’s or in greater position used to incline religiously on e-mail checking system whereas rest of their internet activities were not in the priority list. Flip it ! nowadays, common man + youngsters from all economical strata as well as irrespective of geographical strata are inclined to social media , majorly and religiously in facebook.(http://www.dazeinfo.com/2013/03/13/internet-users-in-india-97-of-them-use-facebook-report/)
Now facebook in India is having 92 millions (71 millions in December 2013) active users, rightly from A1 cities to tier 2, tier 3 cities. (http://www.dazeinfo.com/2014/01/07/facebook-inc-fb-india-demographic-users-2014/)
(http://gadgets.ndtv.com/social-networking/news/facebook-has-71-million-active-users-in-india-50-million-duplicate-accounts-worldwide-328213)
So precisely what they do in facebook ? they connect with people, like minded fellows, school friends, college gangs, prospective dating partners, comment on updates (means grossly show off their knowledge/ funda to impress, brush shoulders with competitors ) , put likes, shares their personal pictures, sometimes simply and silently check all the visuals of their friends as well friends of friends, so on. I may miss some points here on their activities.
Amazingly facebook users category varies like a infinite rainbow colour . What I mean to portray is though we all know rainbow has 7 colours but it can be infinite as we start permuting and combining those colours. Exactly in case of facebook users, it happens like this. My intention is to avoid those gross things about categories & subdivisions, so that we can focus on the heading of this article.
If we see the socio-economic & geographical strata, we see there is one variety of people in facebook who majorly ‘brag’ and there is one variety who majorly search their bread & butter from facebook and one variety who are into service industry. Moreover, there is another kind who comes in facebook only to see pictures shared by other people. But why they do so ? The people who brag their pictures are actually instigating this behaviour, knowingly or unknowingly! How ?
The people who mostly brag pictures are either celebrities or socialites or wannabees. The bragging phenomena started with the celebrities, while they started putting up their pictures in exotic locales with fashionable attires, instigating aspiration of a exotic lifestyle which is not a cup of tea for a common man.They brag their pictures hoping their fan followers will be increased and in turn they will increase their market values. Social media is a tool for them to do so. Previously celebrities had to depend on the print media and according to their PR with a particular media house they had the chance to expose themselves in public. The scenario has changed with this open media era. Using social media as a tool any celebrity either senior or wannabe can come into public radar. So for them facebook is an ideal platform to brag. They do it for gaining popularity ( a marketing strategy) as they do provide service to people being actors, artists or entertainers. And this open media era, the associates of celebrities (stylists, designers, photoartists etc) also began to brag pictures as celebrities as well as the socialites started following their footsteps. Now, the associates of celebrities are also ‘service providers’. So there is a need of their bragging action. But why these Socialites women are bragging?? They don’t need to market themselves! Then why ?
If one considers the bragging action of socialites, it clearly indicates mere showing off to the public , to the have nots of India. Now these common men never have seen socialite women in their whole life! and suddenly through facebook those public have the access of watching so many oomph ladies in their spaghetti, short dresses, protruding cleavages and so on (nah ! I don’t want to be gross in description here). I am not opposing their fashionable attires e.g spaghetti, short dresses, minis, bikini etc. which socialites, biggies and celebrities are wearing .You have the money and you can buy /wear anything you want but that should be done in right places not exposing those pictures for public view. Earlier days, common man & woman do not have any access to see what socialites or big corporate wives/daughters were wearing or have no idea of their high class lifestyles. There were hardly any media covering the elite lifestyles . Everything those days happened under the carpet, away from common man’s site. Nowadays it’s easier than anything; just one click and gotcha! Question is this media revolution is happening where?? Here, in India, a country which is different from other foreign countries. This is not abroad where no body cares about short dresses , exposures; they mind their own businesses. Here every common people cares everything and is nosy about others. Those viewers (common public) are into the pitiful situation as majority of them see women in saree cladded, or in salwar-suits or some covered up attires in and around. They never ever in their lives have seen women in fashionable clothes in bar or some exotic resorts! It’s a cultural shock for them as they had no prior clue about the existence of Indian socialite class.
For those men, suddenly facebook is becoming a cool hangout to access plenty of skin shows from socialite ladies & celebrity females instead of going into pornography sites. For them facebook is better option as they can view face here with physics in skimpy clothes! In case of women, 9 to 5 working women and housewives are secretly hooking up to those exotic dream like lifestyles, spending probably more time in facebook than their partners. No wonder, more those ladies and celebrities will show their skins, brag pictures on facebook, more and more people in India will incline to Voyeurism.
p.s. : -
The below report indicates how the social networking time has increased. (Internet Users In India: 97% Of Social Media Users Access Facebook !!
Read more: http://www.dazeinfo.com/2013/03/13/internet-users-in-india-97-of-them-use-facebook-report/#ixzz2tCfqbeRy
A majority of active users in India access Facebook through mobiles.
read more: (http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/facebook-users-in-india-up-by-5/article5019080.ece )
The study also found that users often feel jealous when they see others having fun during social activities, in which they weren't included in, and only 5 per cent of those surveyed admitted not being scared of missing out.
Read more (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-02-04/man-woman/47004208_1_news-feed-facebook-users-facebook-ties)
