The Online Culture

Recently, the existence of some dots have become inevitable for us. The green, orange and red dots that we come across almost everyday, at least I do, and so does everyone in my circle. No, I am not talking about the traffic signals. Those have become rather obsolete a topic to talk about although sometimes I wonder what if all of them glowed at the same time someday. There sure would be a lot of chaos, but it’ll be very exciting for me. I’ll totally enjoy being a spectator standing endlessly and watching what ensues, knitting it all safely in my mind so that I could unwind it here, for you to read. But that is not your luck this time, although that situation is not at all unexpected and you’ll soon find it written.

What I am talking about is the ‘E-DOTS’, if I am allowed to use that for them. Yes, the red, green and orange dots showing us being busy, available or idle respectively in our E-world of existence. And these dots talk. Some particular dots, like me, would always be available, to talk of course, some always red, like always angry or aggressive and some orange, milder and careless about their existence. Often some dots are not there but still there. This is what they call ‘being invisible’. That is the beauty of our E-world. We can create a world that never existed and would, perhaps, never be available in tangible form.

Somehow I always find a pattern with them. Certain red, certain green and certain with their milder version that keep shifting in the former types, always at least in my interface, form a pattern, or may be I find so because I  am used to figuring out a design, a paradigm everywhere. Because I believe that there is a design in everything which happens.

There is a certain culture that has developed and certain features with the dots which are like the accessories we wear in our tangible existence. Features termed as ‘custom message’ or ‘status message’. There are of course ‘Smileys’, everyone’s favourite. Expressing emotion was never this easy and never as profound as is made by a smiley. And those even have identities, Japanese smile differently than Americans, Australians have a different format etc. Unlike our real world though, expression of emotions is a very simple affair here – easily understood and reciprocated. A very special thing that has snaked into our life out of nowhere because of these dots is the distortion (read evolution, innovation) of the language in terms of spellings.

So eventually words have started losing their original form. There is more of short form included. For instance, right becomes ryt, message cut down to msg and so on. Basically the pattern I found is dropping the vowels, using minimum letters to express what one wants, replacing too many words by just a vowel or a letter as in wot for what, r for are, u for you and using numbers and alphabets together like e1 clubbed for even…the list goes endlessly and has no special rule to it, the best part. I call it best because nobody judges you, everyone just understands. The only rule is to be as creative and as precise as you can be and you are good to go. So when in my world I found the words kewl for cool and the very special and favourite of everyone – hmmm…(It is used anywhere, for a yes, for a reassurance or for when u don’t know what to say), developed by some other dots, I adopted them as my own, and nobody questioned me for that. I love this world more.

There are certain lovable elements of this world. The possibility of existing being invisible, unfriending and blocking the dots whom you don’t wish in your life with just a click (Impossible in the real world), and being internationally available – like an open book in a closed room, are just some of them. One major thing I like about the medium (PC/Laptop) of connecting to E-world/dots is that unlike our brain, its brain can be cleaned. Formatting is what they call it. Like a very special form of amnesia or brain surgery where you can keep the desired memories and remove the clutter instantly. Sometimes I so wish I could just forget some of my past like my CPU can which is not possible though. Some memories are like leeches, they cling in your head and keep sucking the blood but their hunger is never met.

Since everything has its own shortcomings and side effects this world is no alien to these. It is like nothing can be ideal ever; still everyone is groping for that perfection. Anyway, this world has its own negatives. Some times it “crashes”, here more literally than the connotative real world meaning and then it takes time to get back to those dots, often the medium hangs, no!, it doesn’t die or kill itself, it just needs a restart. And often viruses corrupt the system, like the evil people around always looking for ways and reasons to trouble our lives. In fact this world has a whole law dedicated to it, the ‘cyber crime law’.

Love, the topic still the most complicated in the world and at which even the experts are still confused, blossoms in the E-world as well. Although, I have my own prejudices about the topic, I would rather include ‘love’ as a shortcoming, because with me that is how it is, E-world or real world. People tell me they have found love in the E-world. Strange. One of my cousins even got married to one of the dots she found. And some of my friends suffer from a special ‘syndrome’ of the love in E-world. The syndrome I named after my friend in who I first found it (I saw the pattern, as usual).The syndrome has the following features: waiting for some dot to come online (that’s what they call it in its visible form), then waiting for someone to ping (that is what is called initiating other dot to speak, which in love is always a huge step, calculated often!), it is an endless wait but nobody actually pings. Both wait for the other to do the honours. The typical “why-should-I” attitude creeps in and out of nowhere. When they ask me for the next step, I don’t know what to keep prior, their affection for their ego or love (read “crush”).

I have rather been honest always, so I am never a good person for that advice. The economics of love, in the E-world or Real world, has always been beyond my understanding. The usual Demand supply curves, the elasticity and inelasticity, everything loses its meaning in a love scenario which would even have been easier if it had a pattern, but nothing has a pattern. The moment you feel they love you and decide to do the terrible thing of confronting them with that, usually it is now a days rejected by saying phrases like “we are like good friends” (I don’t know who invented it, but I never find it in old love stories, which run for like till eternity). So, the usual eye contact game of the real world love scenario is played in the E-world by the custom messages. These Custom messages behave as our eyes, and attract the dots. So you can use many taglines which come in handy or run in some songs to attract your love object’s attention. Again, don’t take my advice. I just know how to speak straight, which is not what is required. One of the rules I came across was, even if they tell you “I love you” don’t believe it because some days later it will be “I-said-it-as-a-friend”. I know the rules to play it, but don’t know the game! Nor do I like playing it this way.

Overall it is a nice world indeed. Better than the other one. I say so because I am an addict and avid lover of this world. I love the dots I have managed to add over time, in my four years of existence here which makes me realize I am still a toddler here. Always better to be a kid, always better to keep learning.

Kirti Mishra

(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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Image Source: [http://digitalbattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/2005-5-18-china-internet-cafe_web.jpg]

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