#1. Un-Social Crisis

Online Social platforms are so enticing. 

I put my best image, a display pic & the status.  Friends have stimulated my habit with likes & thumbs ups, few have complimented & commented too.

Are we too anxious to give our best or refurbished shots. Creating a pseudo image. Happy & content, when we are striving hard. 

Now, let’s​ ponder on the flip side of opening up on these online social platforms.We get exposed – Yes! The data and details registered​ & synced with these online platforms are available to the world. They know our friends & the friends of friends.

One usual day, a vivacious lady voice phoned and was extremely courteous. She embraced if I knew a past colleague, a co-worker, someone you tend to recall from the faded memory. Rajesh, Ya Ya! I said warmly. Sir! If you could give me his contact number; I am a relative visiting India & trying to reach him. No! we lost contact too, have not spoken to Rajesh for ages; but how did you get my number. Sir! I found you on LinkedIn. A little sympathetic, I politely said sorry. This is when this caller, sensing my genuinity, disclosed that she was a loan recovery agent and my good old colleague had defaulted on his loan and is untraceable.  The smart lady had been doing this exercise of calling web connections of Rajesh, from Facebook to LinkedIn. What the heck! you cannot do that, I said. Sir! What to do, part of the job & we get lucky at times.

I am not sure, how much the smart agent could succeed in finding out about this ex-colleague of mine, but yes, certainly, she made a dent.  My apprehension is, probably she bad mouthed about Rajesh with everyone; his image all tarnished & ruined. Rajesh’s offline social life all doomed, his relatives shooing him away and framing him as an antisocial person in the league of Mallya & Roys.

Life is a lesson, while I had no inclination of deceiving any institution but still the next big move was immediately tweaking the privacy settings of all online platforms; the people known to you could see your elaborate profile & not the entire world.Caution is the word. Websites & apps have these control settings but how to duck & cover from the likes of TRUECALLER, which records your coordinates from other people’s version of contact list.

Cheers to Technology! Convenience & social life weave a blissful lifestyle, while one’s character, at times, get stumped. 

Seriously! Online social platforms are a serious affair.

~ May’2017