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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

On Statuses...

Theoretically, ‘Status’ refers to a ‘rank’ or a ‘position’ or a ‘grading’ or a ‘standing’. But thanks to Instant Messengers, the word seems to have taken on a new definition altogether. For example, even as I type this, Sumi’s status reads ‘Zapped!’, Suraj’s reads ‘Sleeping’, Vidhya’s reads ‘Working…’, Neha’s has her blog link, and most importantly, mine says ‘The Eye Has It’, because my left eye has gone all weird and red and I think it might be conjunctivitis.

So, limited status options are passé; today, statuses have varied statuses and roles to play. Sometimes they tell us how or what one is feeling right then, sometimes they are meant to puzzle and evoke related questions and sometimes, they are there for plain amusement.

A certain friend, ‘A’, shall I call him, had a weird question as his status today. It said “Am I Fickle-Minded, Rude…and blah-blah and RANDOMLY SICK?” I immediately pinged him and asked him why he wanted to know something like that. “Because someone told me I was like that”, he said.

I particularly think statuses give one away. Highlight one’s insecurities too, at times. Like when ‘A’ told me why his status was like that, I immediately asked him what he perceived himself to be. I told him that one idiot denigrating him did not mean he ought to demean himself. Luckily, he realized. And his status is now something much more cheerful. 

Some smart ones stick to the template statuses, but other frivolous, zany, spirited and most importantly NUTTY souls like me prefer to design their own spicy catch-phrases. The best part about a status, I think, is that it gets people to notice you - and talk to you. There have been times when I haven’t spoken to someone for a fairly long period of time, but a beguiling status message has persuaded me to start a conversation with the person. And we have started having more regular conversations post that, courtesy - that one intriguing status.

It’s strange, and sweet, how one simple invention can play such versatile roles. I have no idea whose brainchild it was, but kudos to him or her. Mr. or Ms. Status probably did not even realize the significance of that one little brainwave. As for my status currently, you can say it is “Clueless as to how to end this post”. So I guess I’ll just sign off, leaving you all to ponder for a minute about statuses and their consequences!

Much Love,

Me.

5 Words Of Wisdom (WOWs):

abhi said...

mine is " always available " as i do... but still no one talks to me... seems like ppl responds with wierd notes(status) only... n ya like ur kosto kakima .......luvya mee.....

overturned blue shoe said...

you're right about status msgs getting people intrigued and getting ppl to talk! i once had mine as 'wants a witty audience' and i sure did have one within 5mins:) it works!

Mishree said...

@ handsome - i think u shud try being more creative...prolly ppl dunn find too much of a difference between 'available' & 'always available'...try it,it might work!

@ jen - yea,i know,one ought to know the tricks of the trade!!me thinks u and i are well-versed with attention seeking tactics ;)

Pravin said...

Chicken little was right!

Jay said...

Those were quite astute observations on some of the most ubiquitous realities of the online world! Twitter made its money (and quite a lot of it!) on status messages, so thats maybe where the digital age is headed. Maybe something like : you put a status message on google-talk and it gets updated on facebook and twitter etc.. :)