With all these social networking and Internet Era : Are we Really staying Connected?

Since last few months I have been facing a question regarding whether we are making effective use of social networking and internet and staying connected to our friends and family in real sense? Thus in this post I decided to pen down few incidents that I have faced being away from home for almost 7 years now for education, job etc reasons..I believe most of the audience who will read this post should have same experiences and may well adore on what I have to say through this blog...

When it comes to word social networking; first what comes to our mind is a very popular medium facebook..This is the only book people read once they are passed out of college and its read so often that its a part of daily routine.No doubt we have cool features to chat with a friend, to share the status of our mind ,so on and so forth.
but do we really feel connected through a bond while doing all this..?
I guess the brain will ans YES and heart will ans No to this question..:)

Let us come to particular incidents now..Say a group of friends meet after 2-3 years and they decide to have a cool dinner at some authentic restaurant..Most of them work in reputed companies and use to be in contact with each other through social network , smses , etc..Thus now when an actual meet is kept with an agenda that they can spend a quality time together..Next para explains the real situation which happens in a restaurant..

Everybody comes to a decided place and greet each other with a sweet hello and an adorable smile..
After they are settled on their seats..few start checking their cell phones for smses , calls or surfing..
Somebody reminds all of them some humorous incidents during their college days and not all pay hid to that
cause they might already had that topic during chat on some fine day earlier..By this time food comes and all of them concentrate on their plates and meantime they keep looking  at their cell phones each time the light flashes..
So the sad part here is actually they don't have any topic left for discussion cause all that they had it was done in chat..so here agenda of a meet remains questioned..

The above incident was just a snapshot which helps us brainstorm on question of real connectivity and social bond..Now think of a situation where you go home after 4-5 months for some festival...Your parents expect you to sit and talk with them , go and meet various relatives; but what exactly happens is you update your facebook status with 'enjoying mom made food' and then you go out and give a round to your native to see what all has changed and howz everything there instead of staying in home , talking to parents , grand parents , etc..Also whatever amount of time we stay at home we again open the lappy or cell and start surfing...So does this stuff has helped in sustaining family values?

It seems like now expressions of a face are defined and put in terms of smileys and sentences of discussions are made of shortest words in vocabulary..Does this help convey a right message..Probably YES it does..But question remains is does it make you feel connected? Probably the ans is NO.

Internet and social networks help us connect faster but not better if we look for real values of what staying connected means...They are indeed helpful in conveying a message officially;but excessive usage of them are making us disconnected from real world and family..

If I meet my friend for a coffee then till the coffee finishes, I have almost all my topics of discussions finished and then no option remains than checking yr cell or looking around to others; who probably be in the same situation..Because you can type 1000s of characters in chat and when you really meet and that's the time actually you should talk more and get connected through a special bond of friendship..that does not happen
which unfortunately navigates us to a conclusion that we are getting connected only through virtual links in this real world...

Virtual links would help us bond better in terms of official work and yes that does make it even faster..but when it comes to sustain the value of various precious relationships around; we should give a thought on what will really make us feel connected in todays world...

Someone has rightly said that :
'Nobody will remember how many marks you scored or degrees, money  you earned, but they will always remember how you made them feel at some particular point of time in life'

Thus Bond better and give a thought on this -:)

P.S. : This post was in my mind since past 2-3 months and I compiled it when I went home for this Diwali
         after 4 months and written this in 1 hour which was spent alone once I was back from home.

         Your valuable comments and feedbacks will keep motivating and correcting me :)
       

Friendship->Crush->Love->Friendship

Crush is a phase which either develops later in to a mere like or a long lasting love.

Like and Love are two words starting and ending with same characters but they play significantly different character in one's life.

One such topic entitled 'Friendship->Crush->Love->Friendship.'

Have we ever thought common scenarios which develop the feeling called love for someone?

1] Imagine first scenario where a guy and gal enter their college life as both are teen agers and 

have grown watching Romantic movies and always fantasizing about how their love would be

and they get introduced by some means and suddenly they start communicating on regular intervals and meeting often and then suddenly they get addicted for each other and they name this as 'LOVE'....

2] Second scenario is a guy and gal know each other from childhood and later when they come to a teen age they rename their friendship to 'LOVE'...

3] Third and interesting scenario is when close friends of the guy and a gal convince them such that they fall for that illusion and both start believing that they are in 'LOVE'...

The above stated are most common ways that people develop crush/love for some one and then the real movie commences...

When the feelings go same on both ends and Love reaches its final destination called marriage then it actually termed as true love...
When the feelings go same on both ends but somehow both part ways that time magic called love is termed as an illusion...

But when feeling remains constant on one end and other end has same feeling but only being friends?
In this case one should value the friendship and respect their decision and always save them in special corner of heart and let the time decide on the same....

So in all the cases it begins with a Friendship...Thus if somehow it did not work and you had to call it off you should not just exit but you should be mature enough to restart the relation where it started i.e. with friendship...
A well said quote says : 'If two past lovers still call remain as friends then they are either in love
today also or they were never..' 

It's not necessary to be in relationship with some one because you like and love them a lot; if your feelings are true for some one then you can feel the same even being friends with them and as the journey which commences from friendship if it ends on friendship then there always lies a positive hope that one fine day it would develop in to love for sure......
and the positive sign being you come to know actually what's your kind so you should always be thankful to Almighty for introducing some one who actually made you miss ya heart bit and paused the moment in today's fast moving world -:)

Thus cherish the moments of Friendship no matter whether that ship takes you through the journey from Crush to Love........ 

-------Particular stories on this to come in future posts....!