Facebook for Senior Citizen

Social media such as Facebook has become an oasis for senior citizen. It is not because they are getting neglected by people around. It is because they had been accustomed to be busy with routine work that involved occupational work routine. Moreover, their leg movement has somewhat been restricted. Apart from reading newspapers, watching TV and hearing music of their choice, they need a respite of intellectual kind. They need to exchange ideas and feelings which could take form of a poem, an essay or a blog. A poem encourages wandering in dream areas that could be the landscape in front or the entire universe. An essay launches mindset in areas specialized during age of hectic activity. The blog dwells in autobiography and a dip into present experiences. One could post picture and videos too. Such efforts are easy to grasp.

Mark Zuckerberg has been all along making Facebook congenial to the need of all ages. It had been possible to connect oneself with those around and those who were forgotten somewhere along the track. The platform pleasantly connects with family members, friends, associates and colleagues irrespective of age, color and creed. However, it also teaches the way to behave in a public platform where possibly four generations are interacting and watching each other. Nobody could be indecent or obscene. This is great.

Of late, a few aberrations are making this social media murky and suspicious. People are posting religious posters and political propaganda. They are trying to force their mindset by asking to share. A few become vulnerable to fake news. They get frightened and in the course try to frighten others. Before posting such news, one should ascertain the authenticity of such fake news. It is easy. Just copy the title or some keywords and paste it on the browser. If the news is genuine, some established newspaper or media would certainly have it within their fold.

There are persons who put the stamp of  “like” on others posts so that the other would also reciprocate. Such people do not go into details. Their objective is to get as many likes as possible.

There are persons who post very healthy and informative material. It could be critical analysis of trending news. It could be literal flights such as poems, stories, blogs or essays. These efforts are not just for occupying space on the raster. In this way they are encouraging other like-minded friends to come up with their comments. Sometimes they challenge others to dig in with better penmanship. In such a way, a healthy discussion keeps everybody constructively busy.

One could easily comprehend the quality and character of friends on this social media. This is Mark at his best. A post can be good, bad or ugly. A blog or an essay could be hopeless. A poem may be a third grade exercise. However, a real friend would not avoid such an effort. He would not certainly side track or put a simple ‘Like” to complete a formality. He would put a subtle comment unhurtful and soothing so that the author takes the critical appraisal happily. The effort should be to encourage improvement and never to dissuade. On the contrary, it is highly insulting and humiliating if the so called friends do not respond at all.
And when one appreciates a beautiful effort in a way an intelect does, he elevates himself too. At once, he becomes more respectful. As the saying goes," Beauty lies in the eyes of a beholder".

ये दोस्ती !!!

बहुत दिनों से फेसबुक में फ्रेंड्स की चरित्र पर मन में मंथन हो रहा था । आश्चर्य होता है मार्क महाशय पर जिन्होंने फ्रेंड्स की फेसबुक में भूमिका समझी और उसमें सभी को समेट लिया- छोटे-बड़े नाते-रिश्तेदार, अच्छे-बुरे और दुष्ट मित्र, मित्रों के मित्र और कुछ अनजान एक क्षण में मालूम पड़ जाता है आपकी हैसियत क्या है और आपके फ्रेंड्स की गहराई कितनी है । मैं पिछले कुछ महीनों से फेसबुक से उदासीन सा हो गया था । धीरे-धीरे ज्ञानोदय हुआ और अब मैं पुनः पुरजोर सक्रीय हो गया हूँ । कहना न होगा जैसा मैं अपने साथ व्यवहार चाहूंगा वैसा ही दूसरों के साथ करूंगा । यही सत्याग्रह है ।

अगर मैने 100 के लगभग दोस्त बनाये हें हैं फेसबुक पर तो जाहिर है कोई भी दो एक जैसे नहीं होंगे । विद्वता, समझदारी, पूर्वाग्रह और सबसे अहम् मनोभाव (attitude) और उससे ज्यादा निजी संबंधों पर उनकी प्रतिक्रया अलग-अलग होगी ।

फेसबुक कविता, कहानी, ब्लॉग और लेख पोस्ट करने का एक अच्छा माध्यम हो गया है । प्रबुद्ध जनों का पोस्ट किया फोटो, विडियो और समाचार उत्कृष्ट होता है। इनका राजनैतिक मंथन विचार करने लायक  होता है । ये  फेसबुक पर सात्विकता बिखेरते रहते हैं।

इसके विपरीत सबसे ज्यादा उन की भरमार है जिनकी मांग बहुत थोड़ी है । वे दूसरो का पोस्ट मात्र इसलिए लाइक करते हैं कि बदले मैं उन्हें भी उनके पोस्ट पर लाइक मिले । ऐसे लोगों को खुश रखना बहुत आसान है ।

एक बड़ी श्रेणी उन भक्तों की है जो धार्मिक पोस्टर्स निकालते हैं अथवा राजनितिक अंधभक्ति करते हैं । उनका मकसद होता है ज्यादा से ज्यादा शेयरिंग । इन क्रियाओं को बढ़ावा देना है तो बेशक शेयर कीजिये । इससे इन महाशयों का दिन बेहतर गुजरेगा ।

कुछ लोग फेक न्यूज़ (जाली खबर) को सत्य मानकर शेयर करते चले जाते हैं ।  इन्हें पता होना चाइये कि इस श्रेणी में हैकर की बहुतायत है जिन्हें आपका प्राइवेट प्रोफाइल चाहिए । आपकी शेयरिंग से दूसरों का प्रोफाइल भी उजागर हो जाता है । जाली खबर की जांच बहुत आसन है । उस खबर कुछ शब्दों को ब्राउज़र पर पोस्ट करके देखिये कि कोई प्रतिष्ठित समाचार पत्र अथवा न्यूज़ मीडिया उसे संपोषित करता है या नहीं । जैसे एक फेक न्यूज़ लें “ मोदी अस्वस्थ हैं इसलिए आज किसी कार्यक्रम में भाग नहीं लेंगे “ अब “ मोदी अस्वस्थ” को ब्राउज़र में कॉपी/पेस्ट करके देखिये । जो प्रमाणिक समाचार मिलेगा वह है “पीएम मोदी ने तेज प्रताप को कन्हैया कहकर बताया अस्वस्थ”


रियल टाइम फ्रेंड्स अपनी दोस्ती की पुष्टि प्रत्येक पोस्ट पर बिना झिझक लाइक का ठप्पा लगते दिखेंगे । पर इनकी भी श्रेणी होती है । इनकी विशेष श्रेणी कुछ कमेंट्स भी डाल देती है- कभी अच्छा, कभी बहुत अच्छा और कभी बहुत ही अच्छा । इनकी एक विशिष्ट विशेष श्रेणी भी होती है । कभी आप इनकी उम्मीद से आगे जाने की नहीं सोचिएगा नहीं तो वही हाल होगा जो “3 इडियट्स” में रेंचो का हुआ था । कभी एक लेख, ब्लॉग या कविता डाल कर देखिये । आपको एक लाइक तक नहीं नजर आएगी ।

हो सकता है ब्लॉग बहुत ही खराब लिखा गया हो । एक तो घर की मुर्गी वह भी दाल के एक दाने के बराबर। पर फेसबुक में डालने का अर्थ ही है कि लेखक उसपर प्रतिक्रया चाहता है । एक सही दोस्त मन मार कर ही सही उस ब्लॉग को भली-भांति पढता है  और अपना मंतव्य दे इतनी ईमानदारी और नजाकत से देता है कि तकलीफ भी न हो और लेखक अपने प्रयत्न में निखार लाने की हिम्मत जुटा पाए ।  जब फरहान और राजू जैसे रेंचो के स्टोरीलाइन दोस्त वैसी नैतिकता नहीं जुटा पाए तो सचमुच के मुरारीलाल से आशा करना तो व्यर्थ ही है ।

Those Greedy Indians: Godfather of e-waste

Few years back, I was pleasantly surprised to read a caption of an article saying that Indian and Jews have a stark similarity. The article turned me topsy-turvy when I went through it. It said that both Indians and Jews have identical genes when it comes to hoarding waste and garbage in anticipation of some future use or better resale value. It further said that one-third space of almost all households of Jews and Indians are occupied with hard garbage. One would find such waste stock spilling beyond basements, lofts and sometimes garages. The relay band just passes over from generation to generation. In around 100 years, some hardware turns into antiques and fetch some good money. This justifies the end for future generation to carry on further till the dooms day.

Historically, people have a penchant for preserving heirlooms and antiques. This could be termed as a sound practice. However, hoarding broken utensils, furniture and equipment could be termed as foolish. While the former appreciates with time, the later becomes a huge burden to carry forward with ever constricting space.

The advent of electrical and electronic household products generally come costly particularly those connected with information technology. Computer and mobile phone have flooded the market as well as an educated household. The tragedy with these products is that they are very costly and are eased out by new generation products with state of the art technology. Their resale value drops logarithmically.  These e-wastes depreciate geometrically vulnerable to fetching dirt price as scrap disposal. However, the greed does not allow a person to throw them into the garbage bin.

A common educated household might be containing around 300-500 Kg of e-Waste in expectation. But, there is a big difference now. These wastes contain hazardous materials including radioactive nuclides such as Cobalt-60. Though, there are considerable precious trace materials such as Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum etc., they need enough scraps and good technology to strain out profitably.

Central Pollution Control Board of India estimates that the quantum of e-waste generation would exceed 0.8 million TPD and individual household contribution would be 15%. A simple projection of the popularity that electrical and electronic good are getting particularly in Indian economics scenario, it would well jump 2 million TPD by 2017. And apart from contributing to the e-waste to be around 20% by then, no agency has ever come up with the amount that remains hidden in the precincts of individual household. That could be a mammoth another 30% making the total e-waste generation by 2020 to be more than 3 MTPD by 2020. I doubt if e-waste rotting in millions of repair shops nationwide has been reckoned with in such census.

We, greedy Indians are in a mess. This is a catch-22, a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules. The way thing is this household waste which remains unaccounted by public census, in a very short time, may become a huge bulging belly of residential houses.

I had around 500 KG of such e-waste in my house namely desk top computer, laptops, dot matrix printer, ink jet printer, UPS, stabilizers, radio, inverter, ceiling fans, food processer, washing machine, end-of-life scooter etc. waiting anxiously for fetching reasonably good resale price. After years of waiting, recently, a major bulk went to neighborhood scrap merchant. 

Finally, some good sense crept into my mindset. I donated most of workable or needing some reconditioning e-products to a nearby village school. In return, I am invited to their routine functions. The teachers also bid me regards when I come across.

My house now has the much needed breathing space. I am happy.