Social networking

Social networking sites are here to stay. The popularity of Facebook, Twitter has taken even the founders by surprise. Even the Pope is now on Facebook, in an attempt to rekindle Christianity . I , myself , had refrained from joining these sites as I did not see what benefits it had to offer me over email or blogs. But recently, I joined a lesser know networking site called Geni. Geni is a family networking site , wherein it allows you to create your family tree and then connect everyone on the tree. I had heard about this Geni through my husband’s family, which was on the site already and so I decided to take a look . I found that one could post birthdays , anniversaries and other important events on one’s profile and then Geni would send reminders to the rest of the family about these events when it was due.One could also find extended families and in-law families, find who is related to who and so on. I found some of my dad’s family, but none of my mom’s. So, I created a family tree for myself, including my grandparents and the siblings of both my parents . As each of them joined the tree , their own trees and in-law trees got merged with mine. I now have 1400 family members connected to my tree! For a community such as mine(Hebbar Iyengar), where one is related to another in more ways than one ( ‘tenkol sambhandam’), it is both fascinating and mind- boggling! This site has become a source of entertainment and discussion among family members. And for someone like me who’s jobless( though I do like to call myself a full-time mom, its not always so!), I spend a couple of hrs everyday reading family news , upcoming events and sometimes figuring out who is the person I just got a birthday reminder for! The positive side is that I am now closely connected to some of my relatives (like my dad’s family), with whom I did not bond as well earlier. I now have information on most of my families( including grand aunts , grand uncles and in-law’s in-laws) birthdays, names of their children, where they reside and where and when they went on vacation! And so I’m hooked to social networking sites. Now, I’ve gotten onto Facebook, LinkedIn and Bigadda. This has also inspired me to blog and so here I am with my own blog now. Cheers to social networking...