Posted:
What's your status message?
15 Jun 2008, 0209 hrs IST, Divya A,TNN
Media pundits like to say that the medium is the message. These days, it's just as likely that the message is the medium. To be precise, the 'status message' that's tagged along with the user's name on a social networking profile or chat messenger. Not only do status messages offer interesting insights into personalities, they can also double up as message boards.
So, when 12-year-old Neha wanted to remind her friends about her birthday, she simply put this up on her messenger — "Don't forget to come over at 4 pm tomorrow" — and it worked.
Those who are addicted to social networking know how much they think about a new one-liner each time they log on, because it is displayed to all those who are in the friends and acquaintances list, and so, their image is largely dependent on it.
Sometimes, the purpose is to appear witty and learned. "Some people put up witty and humourous messages, even if they are whacked from quotable quotes, just to sound intellectual," says cyber behaviour psychologist Neema Khurana, adding, "Youngsters tend to get so obsessed with how they are projecting themselves online that every day, they scout for quotes and witticisms on search engines and feel dejected if they don't come up with something 'good'."
She adds: "We live in a time where everybody is conscious of branding. Youngsters are also taken in by the trend. They might want to be projected as someone they like or idolize. Like, some youngsters put up pictures of Bollywood actors, rock stars or sportspersons in place of their own photo. Either they have an inferiority complex, or else they want to be like their role model."
Here's how social networking analyst Laurel Papworth describes it: If you are the sort who keeps changing your status from time to time, then you are one big attention-seeking extrovert. Messages like 'My boy friend is a liar', 'I am sick of my boss', 'My hubby is a wife-beating narcissist' or 'My mum-in-law is a vamp' are typical of people who are trying to invoke the sympathy of people who can see their online status. Then there are others who tend to display messages like 'I hate dogs', 'I don't like what she wears' or 'I love chocolate mousse'. "People of this category are always 'updating' their status because they think the whole world needs to know how they are feeling from minute to minute," Papworth was recently quoted as saying in a report.
Papworth also had an interesting anecdote to narrate. "I know a girl who found out that her boyfriend had broken up with her because he changed his status update. She rang him up and asked, 'what happened'? And he retorted, 'Can't you guess?' This is just the newest way of breaking hearts."
(Some names have been changed)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday_Specials/Whats_you r_status_message/articleshow/3130047.cms
15 Jun 2008, 0209 hrs IST, Divya A,TNN
Media pundits like to say that the medium is the message. These days, it's just as likely that the message is the medium. To be precise, the 'status message' that's tagged along with the user's name on a social networking profile or chat messenger. Not only do status messages offer interesting insights into personalities, they can also double up as message boards.
So, when 12-year-old Neha wanted to remind her friends about her birthday, she simply put this up on her messenger — "Don't forget to come over at 4 pm tomorrow" — and it worked.
Those who are addicted to social networking know how much they think about a new one-liner each time they log on, because it is displayed to all those who are in the friends and acquaintances list, and so, their image is largely dependent on it.
Sometimes, the purpose is to appear witty and learned. "Some people put up witty and humourous messages, even if they are whacked from quotable quotes, just to sound intellectual," says cyber behaviour psychologist Neema Khurana, adding, "Youngsters tend to get so obsessed with how they are projecting themselves online that every day, they scout for quotes and witticisms on search engines and feel dejected if they don't come up with something 'good'."
She adds: "We live in a time where everybody is conscious of branding. Youngsters are also taken in by the trend. They might want to be projected as someone they like or idolize. Like, some youngsters put up pictures of Bollywood actors, rock stars or sportspersons in place of their own photo. Either they have an inferiority complex, or else they want to be like their role model."
Here's how social networking analyst Laurel Papworth describes it: If you are the sort who keeps changing your status from time to time, then you are one big attention-seeking extrovert. Messages like 'My boy friend is a liar', 'I am sick of my boss', 'My hubby is a wife-beating narcissist' or 'My mum-in-law is a vamp' are typical of people who are trying to invoke the sympathy of people who can see their online status. Then there are others who tend to display messages like 'I hate dogs', 'I don't like what she wears' or 'I love chocolate mousse'. "People of this category are always 'updating' their status because they think the whole world needs to know how they are feeling from minute to minute," Papworth was recently quoted as saying in a report.
Papworth also had an interesting anecdote to narrate. "I know a girl who found out that her boyfriend had broken up with her because he changed his status update. She rang him up and asked, 'what happened'? And he retorted, 'Can't you guess?' This is just the newest way of breaking hearts."
(Some names have been changed)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday_Specials/Whats_you r_status_message/articleshow/3130047.cms
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My siggies are mostly put up on my whim or a loving friend's kind gesture. I pretty much put up what my friends make for me. Sometimes I ask my friends to make me a siggy with my favorite movie star etc. But I don't think my siggies are personal statements from my side.
Do you think our siggies reflect our personality?
Do you think people here use siggies to pass on messages?
Should we be reading more than what is intended in someone's siggie?
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Jodha Akbar
