Online Societal Approval ~ Need of the hour ?

Online Societal Approval – this was a phrase coined by my close friend. I was curious to what this what this meant, his answer was simply worded – being accepted by your peer group online. The virtual world is often hailed as the future; a world which will help boost the relationship between everyone.  To be precise, the virtual world for youngsters consists of mainly the free messaging applications, social networking sites and chat zones.

I wondered what others would make of the phrase – ‘Online Societal Approval’. I got plenty of responses, a mixed bag of conditions set to be approved and accepted in the virtual world! Here are some of them:

• Anyone who wants to be recognised as part of the virtual world has to have a complete knowledge of all the abbreviations used, the various functions of any site and all the quirky points.

• If you post a picture on any networking site, you have to have 50+ likes. (Your DP has to be captivating, one friend confided in me)

• Whether you going to eat or sleep or take a walk, you should be regularly “tweeting” and “posting” it. In short, your timetable should be known to the whole world.

•  You should never ever try to “Ignore” any request. Either accept it or mark it as spam. You may be azzied regularly for ignoring any request. (I ignored an unknown request and in two days time, I got another request from the same account!)

• Whether you like any post/picture doesn’t matter, what matters is you have to “like”, “comment” or “retweet” it. If you do so, it means you are being part of the online family!

These were only some of the conditions laid down, yet, I am stupefied! How tough it is to maintain a virtual profile, lead a virtual life and of course, be accepted by your online peer group! Maybe being a bit inactive online is better than being enthusiastically online!