What's on YOUR mind????

These social networking sites always ask you what's on your mind. They want you to tell the world how you're feeling at all times. Better still, they want to add that spice in your friends' lives - whenever they log in, they get to know, who's being dumped, who's chasing who, who is elated at some mundane event in his life that doesn't matter to the rest of the world, but now, it suddenly makes all the difference.

We all use those spaces to speak our mind. Observing and participating myself in these trivialities, i have drawn a few mental patterns about this queer activity. Let's see if I can map all the categories successfully:-

1. The Currents: They post links to their favourite game that happened recently, or some speech delivered by some controversial public figure. They like to keep themselves updated and want to enlighten everyone around them. Fake Alert: Watch out for the show offs who merely wanna let everyone know what they've been reading and how vigilant they are.

2. The Weepers: They are always whining about their lives. They won't tell their best friend what's eating them but they are okay with letting the whole world know how deep they are. My full sympathies go out to these 'piners'. Nothing wrong with being honest about what's on your mind, as long as it doesn't trouble people who look out for you. Keep them in the loop. Otherwise, you are actually providing the rest of the people who don't care and who don't matter with something to look forward to and laugh about every single day. So keep going. If you collate all your status messages you could create a best-selling journal or even, a hit movie that belongs to parallel cinema.

3. The Warm-Fussies: These are the lucky few who live in Mush Land. They don't care about what their image would be in their acquaintance circle. They pour out all their sap online. They think that the only person reading their updates is their ONE. But sadly, the whole world is exposed to the turns your love life is taking. And I speak for all of them when I say - Spare us the sugar, honey!

4. The Salesmen: This is essentially a male trait. They will give their current location and phone number along with their social security number, their address. They expect that the whole world should know their whereabouts just like we know Obama's. "Boston, this is The White House. The Eagle has landed. I repeat. The Eagle has landed." Dude! No one is going to call you. Give it up. Take your phone number off your status.

5. The Pseudo-Gloats: Their status messages always involve a piece of trivium that is totally irrelevant but is always true. It is twisted in such a way that it sounds as if the gloat is merely stating a fact, but is a self-praise in disguise. It creates an awe in the readers' minds about the gloat. But sadly, the awe is ephemeral. It's more like 'shucks and awwwwwwwwww'.

6. The Quoters: They are the most jobless people in the world. I know of people who actually spend half an hour every week digging out funny, profound or just plain weird quotes from books and the internet to post them on their profiles. They obviously expect their friends to comment on these unoriginal and banal notions. I am completely okay with the quotes, people, but the constant persuasion to comment on these impersonal messages is further adding to the under-productivity and inefficiency in this world. If you revel in your joblessness, you shouldn't need company out there now, shouldn't you?!

7. The Cubby-Holers: They are under this misconception that all their acquaintances know their current friend circle inside out. Their status messages include recent developments in their and their friends' lives without any reference to context mentioned alongside. Sometimes, this may lead to very strange inferences and yes, a stain on your reputation. So beware!

8. The Altos: They will always harp on the song they are listening to or the current favourite. Some post their entire playlists. Others merely pick up on a cool rock number and show off with it. The song usually means something - I guess, their current state of mind. But who cares. All this does is gets that particular song on the readers' minds too. If they don't like it, a choice of abuses is slewn at you via the telepathy route. Even if they like it, you don't earn any brownie points, they will still think you are showing off.

9. The Spectators: They are a few who merely watch the other eight prance about every day with a new state of mind. It's fun to do so. It's like a daily soap everyone is hooked on. So bring on the masala! No one seems to mind.

I am not saying anything is right or wrong. I am not even stereotyping anything or anybody. I am sure you have tried to find your best fit in the above few slots. I am also sure you are being judgmental about how judgmental I am :). My friends know I am the last one to be judgmental. Trust me, these are honest observations based on the many many friends I am blessed with. I am also quite confident that many will find more than one match for themselves. I certainly believe that when blogs came into existence, half the web was highly skeptical about them - about the power of expression a blog gives - about the freedom of thought and how it could affect the masses - about opinions - millions of them, being read, rebuked and appreciated. How about this now - whether it is Twitter, Gtalk, Facebook or Orkut, I can post my thoughts, my views, my opinions by the minute. A blog is still a well contemplated journal, but random thoughts are more potent, more personal, more impulsive. What do you do about these fast flying emotions that reach out to everyone around like plague?