As much fun we make of Orkut, lets not fool ourselves, we don’t really hate Orkut, we are thankful to Orkut for introducing us to the world of social media.
Yes, accept it. We loved Orkut even when Facebook was gaining ground.
Till then, we were all ignorant on the concept itself. I still remember how I got introduced to Orkut and after that it felt like I just came out of a room with few friends while there were so many friends waiting to meet and talk to me but none of us knew how to. I re-connected with most of my school friends because of Orkut and that connection continued on Facebook.
Orkut also helped me join groups of like minded people and I started with a local Badminton group. Till then we have Yahoo groups where forward emails used to flow. Like what now WhatsApp groups have become.
There used to be ‘testimonials’ written by friends about you. Now that was a killer thingy. Like the professional one LinkedIn, this personal testimonial was an awesome place to earn brownie points from your friends! I still have a few left (even when few have deleted their accounts hence it say – anonymous).
‘Communities’ connected me with updates from my school and college.
I joined Facebook, in the meanwhile (2007 I guess) and quickly logged off! It felt confusing and not in-line with my Orkut experience. I did not go back there for more than a year, when few of my friends suggested I should be there too, as many of our friends have created an account there too. And then the aura of Orkut started fading.
It’s sad to see Orkut being shut down as we all were (at one point in time) emotionally connected to it. Like Orkut, one day Facebook might also get obsolete and we will move on to something else.
Change is the only thing constant, mere dost.
Kal hum rahen na rahen, mujhe yaadon main yaad rakhna.