The Number Game

I was discussing blogging with a friend yesterday. He was of the opinion that quite a few people (including me) take the online life too seriously. Be it blogging or other social networking sites. People take part in contests, get offended on remarks made on social networking sites, bash others and react on such trivial things and such. Well, a few of the things are applicable to me, like I feel really offended if someone writes wrong things about me or tries to malign my name and reputation which is too dear to me. Defending that is taking online things seriously, then yes, I do take it seriously.

When it comes to blogging, I write when I feel like and time permits. I neither write for numbers or comments since the time I have started blogging. I don't take part in blog contests too if you ignore my BPL participation which went on for quite a long period as we won it! 

But my dear friend is unaware that there are people who really take the online world way too seriously. Whatever he mentioned were not even the qualifiers for being "serious" about social networking. He is a very busy person so I can't ask him to check a few blog communities or twitter, but the day I do, he will call me the sanest person he knows on this planet earth!

People breathe sites. They kill for numbers. When I was new to blogging, I got many comments saying - "nice blog. Please visit mine too, follow and leave a comment". I knew so many bloggers who used to visit 50 odd blogs a day just to get those 50 comments each day! They seldom read the posts, maintained a style and words when it came to commenting, ALWAYS praised the blogger to be in her (well, it's usually her. very few visit his blogs!) good books. And it worked too for many. They always got the "desired" number at the end of the day. The only thing they cared for - the number! In case of comments, followers, hits, page views. 

Slowly the "follow blog" trend shifted to facebook fan page. People sent invites left-right-center for asking friends to be the "fan" of their blog page. After that faded away, now it was Twitter's turn. And when it comes to twitter followers, people still fight for them, cry when they un-follow and celebrate when they have a "special" number as followers like 500 or 1000 etc. Recommendations, follow friday, mutual admiration clubs are few of the main features of twitter. 

Ah, it's all about numbers these days. Number of comments on blog, number of fans on facebook and number of followers on twitter. 

My dear friend should see those numbers, then he will know that I am but a minuscule (rather, non existing) part of this social networking bandwagon. I am sure his definition of "celebrity" will change after that for sure!

This too, shall pass..

Disclaimer: This is a hard core philosophical and personal post. Stay away if you like neither. Don't post hate comments saying I wasted your time. I am warning you in advance.

Time flies, so they say! Some days seem longer than they are, while others you wish they would become longer. Such is life. I vaguely remember when I wrote my first post. It was almost two years back. Now two years have passed, with so much changed and unchanged!

My first post was a very personal one. When I started blogging, I thought nobody would read me. I didn't give my blog link to anybody as I knew I wrote rubbish. After writing 7 odd posts, I realized that two people followed my blog and one of them even left comments. That's when I became aware that my blog is not a private space. Making it private was an option, but I wanted to experiment with my writing skills (!!!).

So it started - a journey of blogging. Of reading and writing blogs. Of experimenting with words. And styles. In the journey, I made many friends and enemies (yes, some DO take blogging seriously!). I even saw peak in case of blogging, though it was a pretty small one for me. There was a time when I got an average of 35-40 comments on each of my posts. Slowly it started declining. Now rarely anybody reads me. I am not that regular too when it comes to posting. Many people I used to read regularly have stopped writing too or are as irregular as me!

But haven't I repeated these things earlier too? Yes, today is one of those days when you think of the past memories and want to go back there. It's one of those days when you think what have you done to see this day. But the next day again takes you by surprise. Life is full of surprises. Things happen at a time you are least expecting and don't happen when you are waiting desperately for them to happen. That's life, and it moves on, so does the time. But when you are at it, it seems as if the time has stopped.

Too much of philosophy already in one post! My my! I remember writing a post on this. I was not very philosophical. I never even liked to read much of philosophy. But time changes everything. It has changed me too, I don't know for good or bad, that time will tell. But the only thing constant in life is change.

Yes, you guess it right. Days are tough, but I am blessed with wonderful people around me who keep me going. They do everything in their power to support me, to cheer me up and face the challenges. It helps a lot when you know you have support. It gives you strength to face the tough time. And as they say, it is a phase, and it shall pass. 

Thus the wait continues. For this time to pass and the new time to begin. A hope for a better time tomorrow. A hope that keeps me, you, all of us going.