By Jaideep Shergill
As a digital native, I have always been curious about how us humans engage and react in the real world versus the virtual world. Studying this pattern has been totally fascinating and I continue to learn everyday. I am a late bloomer when it comes to social media usage and patronisation and I am still learning all about the various emojis et al. I am minimally fluent with Facebook and hence my views may come across as a naïve user, however, as a less prolific user, I have had my share of learnings and seen some interesting characteristics emerge.
I was always fascinated by social interactions between people and one of the books which influenced me early on, Peoplewatching which is the culmination of a career of watching people – their behaviour and habits, their personalities and their quirks and Desmond Morris showed us how people, consciously and unconsciously, signal their attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions, often more powerfully than with their words.
I, therefore, continue to study the what and how of people were posting on Facebook. What I found was quite revealing. There are a number of Facebook personalities. You may know some of them already but what you may not know is what’s hidden beneath the surface.
Communicating in person is quite different than communicating via an electronic medium. For example, would you go to the front of a room filled with strangers and tell them that you just ate or better yet show them a picture of it? The answer is NO because that’s awkward. Yet on Facebook it’s quite common to see people post what they are eating and a lot worse actually.
By now, we are all aware that social media has had a tremendous impact on our culture, in business, on the world at large.  Social media websites are some of the most popular haunts on the Internet. They have revolutionised the way people communicate and socialise on the Web.
When it comes to our very own Indian users, there are some strange idiosyncrasies which get manifested on Facebook
Some of the most fascinating trends I see on Facebook especially with our very own Indian users, follow:
1. I hate you- Even without unfriending somebody (I notice most people actually don’t) one can be completely ostracised. I see several groups of people who only post on each other’s timelines and like/comment only on posts of those who reside in these select groups. It’s a great way to make everybody else feel left out. Wonder why one needs all the friends on Facebook if most of them are never actually communicated with.
2. I, me, myself – Very peculiar particularly with Indian users. We love to like our own posts. In fact, I know of some folks who end up being the only ones to like their posts!
3. I love my own language– We choose to start conversations in our own languages constantly on Facebook. While Bengalis top this list, several other languages aren’t far behind.
4. History & Geography et al– We make it a point to ensure we use the check in option at every restaurant, mall, airport, hotel, building and physical structure we can find ourselves at and sometimes go out of our way to find a place to ensure we can check in
5. Test me– Oh, how we just love taking the silliest personality tests, numerology tests, “what my name really means†test and all other forms of banal entries which we then proceed to promptly post for all to see while we gloat in the knowledge that the test made us look so much better than we really are!
These are just some of the fun ways in which we, Indians, express ourselves on Facebook. The list could easily go on…so let’s keep at it with Fac(k)ebook!
I will continue with what I am now calling “social media watching†and I found this hilarious quote which I believe could well become our social media obituary…
Jaideep Shergill, Co-Founder Pitchfork Partners Strategic Consulting LLP is a PR and communication veteran and has always been contrarian about most things, drawing extraordinary amounts of irk and ire from industry peers. He can be reached atjaideep.shergill@pitchforkpartners.comÂ