Facebook and gtalk are giving young people the kind of freedom of expression that no constitution, newspaper editor or book publisher can ever offer.
Shreya Ray Time was when a status message on the Internet chat list was just that-informing your friends if you were available for a chat or not.
In the age of 'Facebook' and 'gtalk', the definition of status message has been expanded beyond chat-availability.
It could be anything - marital status, love status, professional status, mood status, how-far-my-goofiness-goes status or even my-growing-abuse-vocabulary-after-break-up status.
So after years of being only Available, Busy or Idle it was quite a welcome change when Facebook and gtalk entered the fray and gave a blank space to write whatever anyone pleased.
Suddenly women - and men - have the kind of freedom of expression that no constitution, newspaper editor or book publisher will offer.
For instance, people have the freedom to abuse their boss.
Vinita Kansal, who works in a publishing house, remembers how after a massive showdown with her superior, she just wrote a simple sentence as her status message - Where should I throw the body after the deed? "At once everyone on my list knew I wanted to kill somebody and the only deterrent was the thought that I had no place to put the body.
A lot of humourous commiserations ended cheering me up," she says.
Media professional Pratima Basu had even charted out a dose of stinging slaps she wanted to plant on the face of her boss: do chamaat, ulte haat ke, kanpati ke neeche, har roz 10, 12, 3 aur 5 baje.
In the case of advocate Vandana Pruthi, things went a bit off tangent when friends read her Facebook status as saying she wanted to kill someone (referring to a senior colleague).
Friends of hers ended up messaging her husband asking him what he had done to deserve such strong reaction from her! Delightful Ambiguity The status message also has the delightful ambiguity that few mediums offer you communicate your thoughts without actually saying them directly; an ambiguity which works really well for post break-up communication.
Bhavna Mittal, lecturer of English in Delhi, in a particularly disgruntled mood just wrote.Lie to me, she said, I love you, he said.
"This was intended for my boyfriend who made big promises at one point, but let me down.
That one line told the whole story without really saying anything," she says.
Yes, you don't have to mention who your message is directed at.
The person will always come to know and often respond accordingly.
In Bhavna's case for instance, the person concerned just saw the message and said "I know what you mean.
Please don't get me wrong.
I didn't lie to you." Pamela Mayne, who works for a Delhi production house even managed to retaliate through a status message to her former boyfriend Charlie who had ditched her.
Her status read--Pamela has just found an able successor to Charlie the pathetic, self-important, comic-strip worthy piece of shit.
She further wrote."Charlie was an insufferable common acquaintance that we used to joke about when we were together and say that he deserves to be the lead character on some cartoon strip.
As it turns out, my ex also ended up fitting the bill.
I got to tell him what I thought of him without actually having to talk to him," she says.
Mood Barometer Some people use Facebook as a mood barometer.
Journalist Purbi Bhasin, says she changes her status message all the time because it's a great way to let people know her different moods and is a great conversation-starter (rather non-starter, on days she is in a bad mood and her foul-sounding status messages just keep people away).
"My list of friends on gtalk or Facebook isn't very long, I only have people who are either good friends or family so they usually immediately connect and catch on to it," she says.
Being in the writing profession, Purbi also feels the need to be creative with these mood indicators.
She cites a Bon Jovi song U.G.L.Y, that she puts as a status message on days she feels she isn't looking her best.
"I was really upset once and just said Boulevard of Broken Dreams or Standing in Line to Hit a New Low.
Somehow, that really helped give vent to my feeling without really having to talk to or confide in someone about it," she says.
For some Facebook is just a way to say something provocative.
Vijay Tandon's favourite message is: If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?" PR professional Vishesh Sharma just says Can I go nowhere? when he wants some space.
A sleep-deprived Sakshi Talpade who had a splitting headache says she feels like she has a heavy metal band holding a concert inside her head.
And MBA student Shivalika Kumar, after a particularly harrowing economics class wonders what life without heteroskedasticity would be.
And some of us may wonder what life without these status messages would be! -(Newsmen Features) About us | Advertise | Other Publications | Subscriptions | Weather | Letters | Send Mail Disclaimer: Information is being made available at this site purely as a measure of public facilitation.
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