Kut-kut against Orkut

For once let’s not discuss about all the abuses of decency and privacy on the social networking websites and on the internet. There are probably a lot more shades to look at when we talk of the virtual world that most of us are glued to, almost throughout the day.

It’s a well known fact that we usually begin the day by checking our emails and then moving on to social networking websites among other things on the internet. There are times, when we are logged on to these worlds while we are exploring other important things on the internet. According to a recent survey, people spend an average of 186 minutes on each of their sessions on Facebook (a popular social networking website similar to Orkut). There is almost everything available in the virtual world today when compared to a few decades back when we had never even imagined the existence of a separate world away from the real one within our computer screens.

What is usually overlooked in the process of remaining in touch with our network is the fact that so much of useful time is actually being wasted, which otherwise could have led to greater efficiency and output. Psychologists are of the opinion that these websites are extremely addictive and it is extremely difficult for a person to stay away from it once they start using it.

These arguments lead to two pertinent questions when moderated in context to our college. First: what is the extent of internet usage that would be permitted to us on the campus? Second: how do we manage to refrain ourselves from the excessive usage of these websites if we are provided with complete liberty?

As for the first, none of us can really be sure of what is in store for us, in terms of restrictions on campus. I am sure that in a situation where there is no constraint being levied traversing the surreal world, there would be excessive usage of the 24*7 free access. This could lead to loss of concentration from matters which require greater importance and attention, notwithstanding the loss of productive time. We could also see the complete ban being levied on the usage of these web worlds by the college for saving the degenerating young minds.

As for the second, I would love to mention about Mr. Derek Sorenson, owner of a website repair company 50 miles outside of London. He has invented an application which acts as an alarm and reminds you of the amount of time that you have been spending online on something which is not a part of what your work responsibility demands. His invention, “NOTWORKING” is an application, which you can download onto your desktop (www.websiterepairs.net/notworking.php). It will prompt you of all the hours that you have wasted and the amount of money that you could have earned in the same amount of time. A bright yellow box appears on the screen and shows you the number of hours and also the amount of money that you could have earned otherwise had you been working for the same duration (users need to provide their hourly earnings in a currency of their choice). If you do activate the cumulative setting on this application, it will resume calculating your time from every time you last logged-off from the internet.

Those of us, who have been working in the past and enjoyed the privilege to access the internet on their office computers, will vouch that a lot of time is actually wasted with it. It usually begins with the checking of e-mails on several accounts and moves on to searching old friends and replying to messages on the social networking websites not to mention all the other things which form a part of this virtual world. One rarely realizes or calculates the actual loss that he/she has suffered due to the above usage.

It would be some time, till we come to terms with the reality on the campus, but it would definitely be interesting to see the stand which the college takes on this rather issue which could be controversial for many students.