We use facebook or any other such social networking sites, primarily to share our thoughts, display samples of our work, to connect with friends long lost, playing virtual games to while away idle hours at work and or share personal information about our sundry lives with friends through chat. Have we ever pondered of the power of facebook to replicate the ancient Greco-Roman notion of a Symposium? Have we wanted to explore it beyond the super, synthetic virtual quality of its existence to something more substantial that can create a common universe in the realm of thought for our kindred facebookers? Normally we add people as friends only after they have passed the litmus test of familiarity not only in personalities but in terms of a world view that might be having a wide gamut yet earns respect even through differences. In the virtual world can’t facebook be turned into a symposium of contemporary human thought as expressed thorough various endeavours.
To cite a recent example, when Onir and Sanjay Suri failed to raise funds for the film they believed in, the used facebook as a platform to create awareness and were transparent enough to share their modus operandi and create a successful business model to make their film happen. I am not suggesting that facebook becomes a platform to raise money or creative awareness about any aesthetic enterprise. The history of contemporary thought can be articulated through various forums ranging from politics to pornography without sacrificing the larger moral perspective (self censorship I mean). I mean Facebook has the potential to be heard of as a unique Voice, just like in days of yore the more focused mainstream press used to be.
Without losing its sense of personal fun and the element of catharsis that this platform provides, there can be a lot more done to make facebook a forum like the Symposium of Greek Culture of yore with a global focus on geographic specific cultural issues. Let points of views be as diverse, let the debates get as heated as they may, yet the multiplicity of these very same cultural perspective can open up further windows to our consciousness. In a day and age, when the print and electronic media cannot assume such an objective perspective due to their commercial consideration, can we not use this social network site to better use for expression of ideas as trivial as banter to may be something of far greater significance? It is all there currently on facebook, only not as a cohesive whole. Often a most profound thought just gets lost as pious platitude with a few comments and a few thumbs up signs. If you are delayed by a few hours, you cannot vote for the primacy of sharing any thought as you may even lose it.
There are many erudite sites, dedicated to such enterprise. My suggestion is not to convert facebook into a dull forum for academic deconstruction. It is only to create a greater sense of celebration of the lives and times we live in. Just to think of it, the diverse range sharing a common platform to articulate their thoughts as a cohesive whole…..ranging from the banal to the profound…..basically issues that impact us all facebookers. In a fast shrinking world, I would invite opinions on these random musings with humility and much trepidation. The modus operandi, can be surely worked out by those brilliant minds who are so adept to change the faces of these sites.
