In The Ring > You have been poked!

HAVE you seen that latest TV advertisement of a local mobile operator which shouts: Subscribe to our service and you will able to use a killer application to connect with your family, friends and new acquaintances with just a push of a button! Wow.
Well, for once, I feel – despite my Blackberry – that technology hasn’t beaten me to the tape. I have all the connectivity I presently need with my Facebook.

Dax, a self-confessed Facebook activist, had egged me to join the cult earlier this year. Naturally, I was apprehensive – not because I didn’t believe in its mythical powers of connectivity but because I feared its addictive qualities.

What is the alluring factor of Facebook as an Internet social networking website? What has prompted more than 80 million people to register since it was launched in February 2004? How on Earth did it get to be the fifth most trafficked site in the US and achieve an indicative valuation of US$2 billion (RM6.4 billion)? (According to Alexa traffic rankings on Malaysia, Facebook is currently rated 11 after Friendster in the third spot and Myspace on the ninth).

My money is on the fact that most of us have voyeuristic tendencies and the application appeals to a kind of vanity. Facebook provides the opportunity to reveal to friends who you really are and what you are currently up to. In an instant.

But over and above this New-Age voyeurism as it’s dubbed – I personally like the Facebook facilities that transcend into the realm of convenient and tangible networking (I can’t possibly spread myself too thin but I’m sure the other social networking sites have similar facilities too).

Take for example, the Young Corporate Malaysians, a group that organises successful CEO talks for the benefit of young graduates. Its founder and former UKEC (United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students) chairman Wan Firdaus Fuaad relies significantly on the Facebook ‘events’ feature to communicate with potential participants.

They are on to their 10th CEO now.

But the Facebook theme that strikes me the most where Malaysians are concerned is the dynamic role it is taking on vis-àvis the political scenario.

Malaysian politicians, old and mostly young such as MPs Khairy Jamaluddin, Nurul Izzah and Mukhriz Mahathir, are increasingly using Facebook for disseminating their agenda – uploading videos of their latest speeches or programmes, newspaper interviews – and even seemingly answering the ‘hard questions’ and sharing their many experiences.

Facebook is basically an automatic and interactive one stop site. Chances are, Facebook-ers log on to their sites before doing any other surfing, so any updates on, say for example, a politician’s profile will also be added on to the users’ own personal ‘book’. It also allows any Facebook-er to contribute comments and materials so content is not dependent on the politician alone.

Last month alone, I witnessed three major arguments between close friends because of political affiliations derived from Facebook.

Then, there are groups with specific messages accompanied with sometime very wordy topic heading like “Against Pakatan Rakyat – or anybody forming government through crossover MPs?” or “One Million Malaysians Against Petrol & Electricity Hike” which have members from across the political divide.

For the next General Election, almost 56 per cent of the voters will be under the age of 40. Essentially, the Friendster, Myspace and Facebook generation. One can only imagine how dependant these voters will be on communication via their personal networking sites – and its popular partner in crime, Youtube (that’s another story).

But surely Facebook is a social network meant for the youth segment? After all, it was created by Mark Zuckerberg for the tertiary and high school student market. But, try telling that to my uncles and aunties.

They will probably reply, how else can they see albums of grandchildren and grandnephews thousands of miles away at a click of a button? There is no question in my mind that such interface technological communication are a boon to political communication, organisation and fundraising.

Now, who needs a superpoke?