Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Can facebook kill email?

There is one ad on TV where an old man is asked about events 25 years back. He says in those days we used to talk face to face than over facebook. here i wont say facebook is responsible for killing person to person interaction. Rather i would blame internet as such. Facebook is just an application in social networking. Its the need to create a desired identity virtually which may or may not match your real personna. That is your virtual identity. Thus many people want incognibilty, inaccountabilty , anonymity offered by internet applications like chatrooms, social networking apps and they prefer over face to face conversations or tagged internet applications like email (where you have to declare identity). ofcourse pshycologist can add text over text on effects of internet in personal relations etc thats beyond the point. What i mainly want to compare is facebook and email.
Promoter of facebook has claimed that fb will kill email very soon. Though i have some doubts especially say from archival, attachment , official communication protocol points of view but i am sure it will kill person to person communication in form of email. Nobody writes snail mail today unless for above reasons. The way we have stopped writing letters to our friends, relative, colleagues, we will stop emailing.
One point of contention though is privacy. Though one can send message privately, most still prefer writing on wall which is public to all. The basic success of facebook depends on the fact that there is an urge to make others believe in your profile; real or affected. It has some ego trip about showing off people about your hectic social or professional life. Updating status is need to tell people what my life is. And people also love to peek into others lives and compare. Thats the same vouyeristic tendencies the reality shows cater to. Thus it offers opportunities for individual to assume an self image which he declares on his status. Man is socia animal. he always wants to be among close one. Facebook always makes you feel connected with your world. Some friends are just names you associate by means of some occasional interactions, most are old friends who suddenly appear after many years and whom you thought would never talk to again (thats best part of fb for me), some are very close friends, colleagues (thats very risky proposition on fb to have professional contacts to be there. better they be on linkedin)and some relatives (its again tricky selecting them). Thus your facebook means your world which you live in almost.
While benefits of facebook in promoting event, product is beyond doubt. the most intruguing point for me is psyhcology which drives people to post status updates like " today morning had dosa for breakfast" , ' Had great afternoon tea' , 'waiting to catch flight to seattle'. Why should i be interested to know that. Argument can be that you are only posting to your friends. So they will be interested to know what you do in life. But would you do same in real life ? will you bombard your friends with such trivial items. Just because you are 24/7 online and opportunity is there why should you. Talk about cinema, sports or some important event in life, politics, weather, society, crack some jokes: thats what you talk when you meet face to face. So why facebook should not follow face to face talk.
Coming back to email vs facebook. The convenience and speed offered by fb will bypass email esp for personal communication for sure. facilty to chat, message makes it fulproof. also add birthday reminders, apps, events.
What makes me believe this? On my just concluded birthday, i got a huge update on wall as it was ealier for all my friend to do that rather than send me email. Earlier i used to wait for emails but now my email box was full with fb updates. thanks my friends for all wishes. you made me feel special despite knowing that they were aided by fb. to remember b/day and send email/call makes one feel more special (i had many such friends as well). they say proof of pudding is in eating. so there lies my proof. Sure we will stop writing emails to our friends one day..

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