The Social Media Strife

Over the past two weeks I’ve been seeing posts about a movie which was praised and shredded over the social media. And then there was the Year one anniversary of a great person where people switched from the movie mindset to praying to the soul in the sky.

I was being kind of oblivious to the this posting my own thoughts over the social media. One of the things that recurred throughout this flow of posts is Conflict of opinion. On one side I saw people brawl about the movie being great and not, one group was quarreling about why the star was not used properly, one about the director being an amateur. From afar this all looked like it was just a social media scuffle over things, but looking deep inside, I saw some taking this seriously. In fact, I happen to witness a disagreement between two people in real life extending from their social media dispute. The beauty of this is that, it might rise between any two people, thickest of friends or two random people.

Also over a period of time I have found people trying to push in their thoughts and opinions into someone else’s perspective, even I am guilty of doing it a few rare times.

I also happen to notice how people handle this conflict of interest, the most common method is retort back. Though giving back a snappy answer is not a great solution, it merely blows it up.

Another way is ignoring the invader or asking them to ignore, but is this the right method to handle idea invasion? No, would be my answer. Let me tell you why, recently I posted something and there was a small bout about the perspective. I slyly asked the person to fuck off by asking to ignore the post since it was the public social media, the reply asked told me that the person can choose to not ignore since it’s the ‘Public’ social media. I got annoyed for a moment but I realized that the reply was as true as my answer. It’s a public forum and everyone has the right to be there and respond as much they have the right to ignore and move on.

This was a huge slap to my perspective. Ignorance was definitely not the best option.

So there I was scratching my brain on how to handle about conflict of thoughts. Is the education a reason for this? It can’t be, I have witnessed both uneducated and educated having same idea. Is it the perspective? Maybe not, every perspective is a new way to approach something. Is it the mindset? Possibly. But its highly debatable.

Some two meals and a night’s sleep later It struck me, The Test of Socrates.

It is said that Socrates always ask 3 questions to anyone who gossips. The questions or as follows,

1. The Test of Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell is true?

2. The Test of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell something good?

3. The filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me going to be useful?

Now to this I want to add another question,

4. The Test of Closure. Passing the above 3, how satisfied are you about your own thought?

If people manage to get past beyond all the 4 barriers, it is safe to say that your idea is right. So far I have managed to pass this 4 questions only once. Let the ideas flow.

~Perspective?

The post where I show my Gratitude.

All those idiots,
Screwed me over and over,
Made me wait for hours, and be on time never,
Made me pay for, not my mistakes and food I didn't eat,
Always trying to make a fool outta me,
Join with strangers to laugh with glee,
But unbroke my heart unlike others,
And other few comparable to mothers,
Their faces are a reminder of how screwed up I am,
and also how worse I could've been,
Yes, they're selfish, but only for Selfies,
I know I owe them everything,
But these morons, would never let you have anything,
alone,
They are the best headache you could get,
Though make sure you're not taken to a vet,
You'd never get a loan, but it is always mine to take,
Just make sure they aren't fake.
I want to thank you all, but my heart says no,
For you're my friends forever which is what I know.

~To all :D

The 100-rupee post.

We, as teenagers and young adults live off our social life with the 'Pocket money' from our parents.
Be it the 3G data pack you activate every 28 days (cause 30-day month is too mainstream for telecom idiots) or the sub-veg you pay so generously for.

Our staple pocket money ranges anywhere from 500 to 3000 per month depending upon your parents mood then, your marks(!) and the credibility of your reason to spend the above said money

We (read ME) give out some fantastic reasons to get some money out of their pockets. We would’ve have gone so far that we’ve created and killed characters, severely injured our friends, went on non-existent field trips, paid for courses we never attended, over paid our courses, fined ourselves and what not?

Yeah, yeah we know the value of money (rolling eyes) and we want to spend less. But there are days where a single 100-rupee note would have saved our lives from acute hunger or great embarrassment.

But have we wondered what a 100-rupee note could get you in the city? It doesn’t fetch much these days, but here is what you could bargain off a 100-rupee note in the metros.

-A one-day pass of 50 rupees to travel within the city limits in MTC bus. IT can also fetch you tickets within the outskirts of the city.

-A share auto to places unreachable by public transport and these are usually within 30 rupees.

-A normal auto to reach those destinations quickly. Sometimes it may go above 100 bar but you’ve got to be crazy for that.

-Do not forget Train Tickets!

-Your phone’s recharge. 10 rupees to 100 rupees. You choose.

-Movie tickets if you feel you’re not generous enough that day. 10, 50, 70 ,80 the rates vary with theatre (pathu rooba ticket na sema mass)

-Your popular chaats like samosa, bhel poori, kachodi, pakoda, paav bhaji etc. all come somewhere between 10 to 50 rupees.

-Paani pooris! I’m specially mentioning this cause I’ve seen paani poori ranging from 5 rupees to 60 rupees per plate. There is something in those rasam filled globes.

-Soups and juices, those are just delights that you’d love to indulge yourself at any time. They are usually charged from 10 to 80 rupees per glass with juice being the on the costlier side.

-You know a tummy full breakfast or lunch can be achieved from AMMA mess. A sambar rice packet costs 5 rupees (be jealous other states!). Cost of a full meal 20 bucks only.

-And also an AMMA water bottle costs 10 rupees.

-A Quarter bottle of alcohol costs 70 rupees and above, depending upon you and your friends’ purse weight.

-Go Pondy bazaar or T-nagar and you could grab some good looking (underline good looking) T-shirts, shoes and wallets.

-Girls can go binge shopping all day in Ranganathan street with a 100-rupee note. Jimikis, chains, earrings, bangles, anklets, purses, handbags and more are available starting from 5 rupees. Though men beware, more chances that you’d be spending a few hundreds if it’s your beau.

-A hour of internet browsing at your café will usually cost 30 rupees these days.

-Few packets of your favorite 2 minute noodles can be bought with a 100-rupee note.

-Those munchies you love but they come with lot of air costs only 5 rupees.

-Your data pack for a week.

-Those excellent parotas that cost around 10 rupees per piece.

-Almost 1 ¼ liter petrol for your beloved bike.

-If you’re interested much a session of gaming in your local place costs 30 to 100 rupees.

-An second hand Novel is usually under 100 rupees.

-You could get your hair cut and also your face shaved for 100 rupees.

-Our beloved traffic police men who hold you back for no obvious reason are soothed by a 100 rupees.

Now you must wonder why I’ve given this obscure list of things and prices you already know, because today I saw a kid of ~8 age selling some worn out vegetables for money. I’m sure he was not one of those scammers, he was honestly helpless and hungry. At that moment I wished I was not a bit selfish and also I had an extra hundred rupees.

I just wanted to put through that we can spend our money more sensibly and responsibly.

~Money Matters

Smart Phones vs. Basic Phones

 Yeah, we all live in a frickin fast world, though I'd get an extra second this year it’s not enough. We are moving at a rapid pace towards something indefinite and undefined. To cope up with this pace, we use phones as medium of quick communication and information transfer.

And in these phones there are only three types are people.

The ones with Landline phones or the ones that WERE with landline phones. Though most of these people are dead, these phones are a Legacy.

Then those with Basic Phones, who probably had ecstatic feeling when they had bought it initially.

Oh you know the Third type, the ones with flashy cameras, large screens, data thirsty and proud phones.

Firstly let me define what smart phones and basic phones are in my view point.

Basic phones are the ones which can be said to have a physical keypad, a media player facility, a radio, a memory card slot, a 2G GPRS feature, Bluetooth and may be a very basic camera. I leave it to the reader to imagine every other possible features of these phones

Smart phones are the ones which have a large touch screen, a fancy primary camera, a probable secondary camera, Wi-Fi facility, 3G and 4G, any Smart OS like Windroid, iBerry etc., support for recent and upcoming apps, and many other features which have already popped up in your mind by now.

The Landline phones have become obsolete now, so we give them a parting bye and move on.

So basically everybody owns a Smartphone these days, even my 9 year old cousin. And me? I own a Bar, ummm a bar type phony, sorry phone.

-Accessibility

Maybe 5 years ago it would've been easier to tell the numbers, the number of smartphone users have grown and the general number of Cellphone users have increased too.

So it’s a Draw.

-Utility

You guessed it. Yes, Smartphones do win here. Apart from the usual call and text facility Smartphones have an array of applications that can be very useful. Be it the Thatsapp or the Skyte, they help you contact a very distant person instantly. Smartphones even have applications for monitoring your diet and health. A Phone even has a heartbeat monitor and a Fingerprint reader. Wow right?

Basic phones… Hey they can play music! And Call!
Smart Phones get an upper hand here.

-Usefulness

Smart phones with their large store of apps and games they may seem to be very useful, but in reality they actually deviate us from intended purpose. Instead of sending an Office file to your Boss you might end up sending Dirty jokes to him. The sheer number of applications in the phone are a distraction to us. Nobody can ignore the repeated notifications of your messaging app or your favorite Candy crash Game.

But Basic phones lack this wide range of applications which limit them to the basic functions like calling and texting. But this in itself is a drawback. In comparison to Smartphones ordinary phones are a bit lacking in features but they let you do your work.
It’s a draw again.

-Life and Durability
I give you a single hashtag.
#bendgate

There is an urban Legend that a phone has survived a bullet and saved it user.
The Legend stays.
Basic Phones Win.

-Maintenance

Smart phones are very fragile. They need a Screen guard to protect the ‘Corner Chimpanzee Glass 4’, a Hard Case to protect it from fall damage, a power bank to resupply power often. It’s tedious and you’ve got to handle it like a hot, rich girl friend.  So the maintenance is a major problem in these phones.

Basic Phones are pretty much solid next to metals. I’ve even used these phones to balance my table and I don’t think maintenance would be a major problem.

Yeah, Basic phones.

-Cost
This is a difficult decision, but Basic phones really do win here.
There are many smart phones with Great features, functions and uses. But it all comes with a large price tag. And For every Drop you make, its life decreases by half. Smart Phones with its Accessories cost more per usage period than a Basic phone.

Though it’s an unfair comparison.

Basic phones rule.

-Technology

No Argument here. Smart phones keeps its users updated with latest OTA updates, thus making it more efficient progressively and more appealing.

Some Basic phones do have upgradable firmware, but it has no appreciable change.

Smart Phones win.

-User Experience and User Friendliness.
Smart phones give us a more visually exclusive experience. Its icons are large and easy to understand, it has various visual and aural clues and cues to help us understand the OS to full extent. Even old people find it easy to comprehend it. They even read our typing and swiping pattern and predict according to it.

Basic Phones with their Small screen are not appealing enough. The physical Keypads, though may be quicker to type, they are clunky and usually too small for human fingers. They tend to wear out.

Smart Phones are the victors.

-Data Consumption.
Smart Phones Live off the internet. Almost all smart phones these days are connected to a ‘cloud’ for data storage and transfer. Their very existence is depended upon the Internet data. Their updates, upgrades, applications are based on the internet. They use up data like rocket. Whoosh!

Basic Phones are not that data hungry. Usually they leave us with the guilt of not using it up to the data limit given. So Basic phones are more diet conscious.

Basic phones Claim it again.

So Scoring off both sides.
                                                                                                                Smarts                                  Basics

1.      Accessibility                                                                      -                                 -

2.      Utility                                                                                1                                0    

3.      Usefulness                                                                         -                                 -

4.       Life and Durability                                                         0                                1

5.       Maintenance                                                                    0                                1

6.       Cost                                                                                   0                                1

7.      Technology                                                                        1                                 0

8.       User Experience and User Friendliness.                       1                                 0

9.       Data Consumption.                                                         0                                 1

 

                                                                                            3                                 4

Smartphones - 3

Basic phones - 4

Shocking isn’t it?

Well it’s true.

But don’t be an Idiot.  Get a Smartphone. Or be old.

~Basically Smart.