You say Twitter and I say Twitter

I have been fascinated by Twitter ever since I got the hang of it. My friend once gave me this tip about Twitter. If the number of people you follow is more than the people following you, then you are not worth being followed or simply put, you shouldn't be on twitter. So he makes it a point to make sure that he has more followers than the people he follows. So if what he said was true, then I am clearly not worth being followed or be on twitter. But I use twitter for a different reason altogether.

No, I don't use it to promote a business online and make loads of money or compete with CNN to have the highest number of followers within a certain date. Instead, I have been using it like my personal diary-cum-news feed. For example, I can quickly scan through articles from WSJ or NDTV for news, check out what a particular personality feels about a certain issue (in brief at first and if interested, follow the link and read in detail), get to know about the latest podcast from my favorite Science and Tech website, or follow the latest news about my favorite TV series, and so on. Which is the reason why I feel it is more powerful when you follow more people than people following you. It also leaves a lot less clutter to sort out from as I have noticed that over a period of time it becomes more like a scrapping portal among your friends. So you would end up with another social networking site instead of having an app that would allow you to sift and select information you'd want to read or tweet about. So, while my friend's looking for popularity, I'm looking for a medium that helps me keep in touch with the world in general.

And it works well that way, at least for me. Just like a scientist would want a high end computer to do number crunching and complex calculations, a gamer would want it to run MGS or COD. Same device different usages. And Twitter is no different. Same app different usages. And that's the beauty of Twitter. To each his own.

I, Robot?

A software engineer working in a reputed software company and his wife treat a minor housemaid (while fully knowing that child labor is a crime) like Fagin treated Oliver Twist. Students of a reputed University go on a rampage and torch city transport buses and destroy private property as a sign of protest. A highly-placed policeman harasses a teenager leading to her death. A student kills a girl who has spurned his proposal. In another incident, a student and his friend throw acid on a girl for a similar reason. See a common thread here? All these are acts of crimes that were committed by 'educated' people. Which makes me wonder whether somewhere our education system and family values seem to have taken a wrong turn in this era of so called technology and development? Or have we forgotten to 'educate' people to do the right thing? How else can one explain all these heinous acts committed by 'well-educated' people? People debate on making the law stricter so that people don't get away after committing such crimes. But why is there no debate on educating people about the lines that should not be crossed in a society? Is it that difficult?

I am glad that we still applaud movies like 'Avatar' (which has an underlying message about how we are at war with our environment) and '3 Idiots' (which talks about how we conveniently ignore to understand the difference between 'training' and 'education'). As the character in '3 Idiots' says, even a dog can be trained to do a job but not everyone can be taught to understand and execute. But once we walk out of the theaters, its life as usual. And so here we are setting new milestones in being brutal and unsocial and trying to get away with it through the use of power, influence and money.

To be honest, while on one side our education system has been successful in creating software wizkids, hotshot managers and respected researchers, on the other hand, its uglier side seems to have stripped us of our humanity and created a person who is indifferent to his fellowmen's life and rights. And shouldn't the parents also be blamed for turning the kids into such wrong-doers while pushing them into becoming over-achieving professionals? The evidence definitely seems to indicate so. Parents and teachers seem to ignore the responsibility of bringing up the kids as proper human beings while striving to create a successful life for them through heavy doses of learning. So the question is whether we will forget to live as human beings over a period of time and evolve into something supremely efficient but totally devoid of emotions because we were not told how to behave while we grew up? I fervently hope not. At some stage, we must outgrow the idea of education as a means of producing trained success-machines and think about turning education into a medium that would help create successful but socially responsible citizens. Only then can we say that our education system has achieved its objectives. Till that time, we will have to watch and read about 'Law & Order' TV series kind of crimes happening in real-life and cringe at the enormity of the crime committed.

Happy 2010

(courtesy: NASA. http://nasa.gov)