The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Faroghe Azzam

Social networking sites are very popular among youths. This year Orkut has been awarded as MTV youth icon for the year 2007. Though it does not contain nicotine or any other supplement but it is an addiction. Though it was formed with an objective to socialise but it has more darker side that is untold. This article throws some light on the good, the bad and the ugly of such sites.

Your neighbour is a bullshit and you wanna kill him? You wanna be rich? You need power? You wanna be loved? Sex or BDSM, pin-up ******? Destroy all your ****** enemies? One of seven capital sins? Nobody on Orkut is your friend? Tell me what you want and sign for your soul. I am your best friend...Your wish: ...Your name: ... [Inferno Customer Relationship Management] Our jingle is "Ready to serve our customers!" ” says a community named 'Ask the Devil' having over 7,000 members owned by Daniele Medri on Orkut. Search 'Happy slapping' on YouTube and you can find numbers of videos that encourage violence and bullying amongst teenagers, who were filming fights on their mobile phones. These two are just a few of the instances that openly accost and encourage violence on social networking sites. This is a simple observation of the exhausting social and human values wherein a public platform is being misused to serve vested interests by a particular section of the society operating numbers of communities and videos related to hatred, sex, devil and so on.

The concept of social networking websites emerged in 1995. The first social networking website was Classmates.com. Other sites followed, including Freindster, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, and so on. Gradually the social networking sites became very popular among teens. The concept of online social networking came forth by west, emerged in USA and outspread the whole world. As per the demographic data available on net portal, USA has the largest number of users of such websites. However the users in India have increased massively. Orkut was born in 2004 and was introduced in India in February 2006. India is the third largest user of Orkut preceded by Brazil and USA at the second spot. The massive numbers of children as its user, it is a tough job for their guardian to prevent their children from using such sites.

“I Hate Myself And Want To Die...” says a community which has around 1,300 members. Another community named 'I HATE PAKISTAN WHAT ABOUT U ?' says 'Doodh mangoge to kheer denge!Par kasmir mangoge to cheer dege!!' in reply a community was started by a Pakistani user whose community 'I HATE INDIA AND WHAT ABOUT U?' says ' INDIA SUCKS!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE PAKISTANI ANSWER TO THE COMMUNITY 'I HATE PAKISTAN AND WHAT ABOUT U' JUST TO LET THE LEVEL HEADED INDIANS KNOW WE DID'NT DRAW THE FIRST BLOOD....'. there are over 2000 members in such communities. These are mere few examples of hatred on Orkut. Due to easy accessibility and various hate groups Orkut is facing controversies. Several hate communities focused on racism, Nazism, and white supremacy has been deleted due to guideline violation. However the number of these communities and profiles has not stopped growing because they can be very easily created and it is hard for Orkut to check them. Anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic hate groups have also been spotted.

According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia “In 2005, various cases of racism were denounced to police and reported in the Brazilian media. In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against Black people and spreading defamatory content on Orkut. Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google on March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.”

Same message is passed by an online video sharing site named Youtube.com. Violent videos are frequently uploaded by the users like happy slapping, fighting girls and so on. Most of the videos are captured by the mobile camera. However some users use flash and assemble the photos to upload it. Both you tube and Orkut is owned by Google and on its 3rd birthday Orkut was redesigned, from then users of Orkut can share their video. Orkut and many social networking sites are now available in BETA version.

“hey this is hot Indian….single and ready to mingle…the real sex guru and know the real definition fun...i am open for phone sex…so girls don't think too much jus message me to get my personal no.” says the profile of hunk4u on Hi5. “I m d 1 u were looking for. Ready to do anything if u make me feel like a ****!!! I like it hot n wild n I love to be abused. I love to do all kinky things...n I love to be touched in public. So wat r u waiting for???? Come n get me. I m all urs” reads the profile of a user, Anamika Shinde on Orkut. The social networking websites are often misused by the users. As the number of online networking users increased, there was a rise in the number of fake and clone profiles. Several users want to satisfy their unfulfilled wants through net. There are more than 1000 communities related to sex. Presently these social networking sites have open online sexual transactions which have diverse effect on the psyche of the vulnerable lot.
Several users are advertising them through the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities. They offer services for sexual pleasure at amounts ranging from 2 to 5,000. What they need is contact number; they exchange numbers through private messages. Beside, bare images and uncouth language the evil has clutched communities of schools in trying to lure young students into its trap. “I was shocked to know that somebody has created a fake profile of mine that has bare picture, my real contact number and my real address. I don't use that number anymore” says a young student of Notre Dame Academy in Patna.

The fever of social networking is spreading like an epidemic disease. The child can be infected anytime anywhere where net is available. Nevertheless these social networking sites are blocked in many Islamic countries. As they say, this is due to national security issues, as users have the ability to spread wrong messages rapidly, but the government says ethical laws of Islam do not allow any person to date and match making. However, in UAE this block was later removed in October 2006. Thailand and Brazil are another two countries to block these sites. Brazil blocked only YouTube. The issue raised in Brazil when a Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli was captured by a freelance photographer while making love with her boyfriend and later the video was uploaded on YouTube. She sued YouTube and the court gave judgment in her favour and ordered YouTube to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed.

Many schools, institutions, offices and public libraries in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have restricted access to these sites because it has become such a haven for student vicious gossip and malicious comments. This step was subsequently followed by the institutions in India, Pakistan, Turkey and many more. I asked a student of Engineering about from where he accesses these sites very often, he replied in a felicitous manner “I don't need to go cafe to access Orkut, and I pay 65,000 every year to the institute, so I use the system of my institute”. However, the sites like Orkut are banned in that institution but students some how manage to unblock the sites.

“Though, these sites are meant to stay in touch through messages, scraps, and shouts as mailing have become boring and long. But it is very unfortunate and despicable to see that people use it for pervert purposes. At the initial stage you get enthusiastic but after certain time you start ignoring your friends. I was seriously addicted to Orkut, I left it because of over communication” says a student of Western International university, Rasshad Khan. This is one case and very few people like Rasshad has an ability of self-realization.

“i wanna die ... please help me!!!! hello evry1.... i want 2 commit suicide... please giv me the most difficult way to commit a suicide... i wnt matter if it is difficult॥ coz i want to die...” says a user with a profile name waiting for life। “The most difficult way to commit suicide is 'to live a long life'... Go for it... At last, you will die by old age...” replies Amrit in the same thread in the community called Suicide, which has almost 6,000 members, which had 274 members in February 2007. There are several other communities related to suicide. These communities encourage people to commit suicide and the members discuss about the alternative methods of committing suicide.

In the last few months many new social networking websites can be spotted. Reliance has introduced its networking site and named it Bigadda.com (a place to hang out with friends). Another social networking site named Myindospace.com is gaining its popularity in India because of its unique facility that no social website provides and that camera to camera chat. Myindospace claims itself as India's largest and fastest growing social networking sites. The punch line of the particular site says 'the world is not enough', I wonder if they will open such sites for extra terrestrial species in near future.