Obituary - White Bird & the Red Box ! Who's Next ?

I hate to say this, but the slow and sad demise of already forgotten the white bird and the red box, the loyal companions for centuries, is turning into a much celebrated event. Gone are the days of waiting for eons, dying in love, enjoying the pain of separation, waiting to hear the fluffing of a white bird in the window or a knock on the door from a middle aged man wearing kool Khakis, driving mean machine. 

The age old battle ( yes, 7-8 years do feel like quiet a time now !) between utility, futility and importance of Social Media and Emails !

The battle is shaping up, the arena is jam packed and the warriors are all loaded with their arsenal of ideas. We the spectators are all set for a treat, though we have not dont much except being there, being alive at that point in time.

I think working professionals dont use Emails and Social media for same purpose as of now. While student and non-working people tend to use emails and Social media platforms interchangeably depending on several things such as Convenience (in office I dont want to be seen as logging into Facebook too often, whereas I can access my Gmail or Yahoo bit more conveniently without getting noticed :)). Sometimes Mood swings ( I hate slow emails today ! OR weekly resolution - Enough of Facebook for the week) decides the amount of time I will spend today on making money for Google or Facebook today. Interestingly my location also affects the amount of time I will spend on internet today. (Orkut is banned in UAE, Facebook is very slow in Egypt, Gmail does not work in lot of office in India !)

Emails perhaps will not be dead anytime soon at least for professional/business purposes. For personal use too, emails are still relevant because of easy filing, searching, tabulation features. The walls and the tweets are perceived to be under wide public domain and people still don't feel very secure using them and thus I dont think they share very personal content either as they can do in emails.

Once upon a time, there used to be bunch of 'smart guys' in every city who sold email database of thousands of potential clients for any of your and mine business. No matter what our business was, they knew our potential clients somehow. Now a days by 'allowing' the apps, we have taken away the job of those 'smart guys'. But the new breed of more smart guys, who are creating really smart apps are currently in demand. With these apps we not only share our email id, but all other information about our profile, that too happily, at our own free will, for good or bad.

Social Media is slowly replacing the Social Life which people used to live in real world. The BIG difference is virtual life is far more convenient (cost, time, energy) as compared to real world life. Revolutions have been happening in past 3000 years, people have been sharing their views, pics, songs also for reasonable time and they will still keep on doing that.

With time, I'm sure Social media platforms will get better, secure, reliable and will have all the email features and bunch of useful, bizarre features. Perhaps emails would be dead or redundant then !!

But the the growth, innovation has been happening in non-linear fashion, often unintended. The reasons behind every significant internet related innovations have been unique. So, who knows what circumstances will lead us to the next big bubble, next big thing, better than what we expected or even dreamt of, is just waiting to happen anytime soon, which can change the fundamental way we interact, learn, perceive ourselves and live our lives !!


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Image source rgbstock.com