Of love & Facebook

I was introduced to the concept of real & virtual when I was Std 7 , Introduction to Optics,mirrors with real images & virtual images, since then I was puzzled with the concept of virtual & real & often wondered what distinguishes them. Then in my late teens when I entered the arena of social networking through the long forgotten Orkut, I slowly realized I had a virtual life apart from the real life in which I had my family, friends & studies. Infact everyone who was on Orkut had a virtual life, with  fancy display pics, fancier self descriptions & there was another option of Relationship status which could be Single/Committed/Married or blank for people like me.

Then came the God of social networks, Facebook. Like my friends, I too joined FB, doing some research initially to know the difference between Home & My Profile :P As time passed by, people fell in love & happily declared it by going from "Single" to "In A Relationship" on FB. With a sense of joy, the friends & well wishers of the person liked it & poured their best wishes & <3 through comments. Yet the sad part was when the person went from "In A Relationship" to "Single", there were :( & what happened??? in the comments, #trulyhearbreaking for the person as well as the world.

Then there was the notion of  FDA (Facebook Display of Affection ) which was synonymous to PDA ( Public Display of Affection ) in real world.The golden rule of FDA states that if you are in love, then you must flaunt it #BIGTIME on FB. The love could range from photographs to :* to songs to ohhh sweetu, i love u baby!! on the beloved's wall with the entire world liking it & filling in comments like Awww!! , So cute, God bless you guys #HowSweet :)

Then there were the underdogs, the kind of people who kept a low profile, who were in love but  were uncomfortable with FDA.They had blank Relationship status & basically did not indulge in FDA.They were sneered at, by the crusaders of FDA. Comments like "Your love is true only if you keep posting cute things on your beloved's wall" & "If you guys are not keeping your relationship status as "In a Relationship", then you are not sure about the Relationship in the first place " were hurled on to the underdogs & they were mocked at.#TrueLoveIsProportionalToFDA.

The there were transitions like "In A Relationship" to "Its Complicated", "Single" To "In An Open Relationship" , "Its Complicated" to "Single". Wide mouthed, the world gaped as the love between two people rose & sank like the sine wave in the tides of heated arguments on FB walls to exhuberant displays of passion with cuddled pics & well..lets not go there :P. #TidesOfLove

Then came the really nice feature by which we could not only know the Relationship status but also the profile of the person with whom one was Married/Engaged/In a Relationship with.#SomeSeriousStalking.

I recently read in a book that " The Greatest compliment one can give oneself is to declare 'I am open book'". The same can be applied to FB with a slight modification that goes " The Greatest compliment one can give oneself on FB is to declare 'My relationship with XYZ is an open book' " . 

Years after Std 7 , I am still confused about what is real & what is virtual. To express one's love for someone can be the greatest gift , one can get.Yet categorizing love into a specific group, letting the world  know what you sweetly whisper in your beloved's ears, constantly being in the apprehension of what exactly category is one's relationship in & then letting the whole world comment & like it is something which is merging the real & virtual.

The problem of merging real & virtual is that it is a one way process.Once it is merged, distinguishing the real & virtual will be impossible & one will be lost somewhere in middle.#Lost&Clueless.