When I was in my primary school my dad used to see the news every morning at 7am on Doordarshan and if you miss it you can see the English news right after that at 7:15am! And of course newspaper being the other source. Else there was no other source of current news! I have lived in Gomia all my school life (Jharkhand) and it was a township with the best of facilities like a city, but newspaper used to come from Ranchi and would not arrive untill 11am or so, hence I used to read it only after I was back from school (only after class 8). As every average student’s interest would not be a newspaper, so was the case with me. Star Movies and MTV always had a better impact on me. Anyways, without deviating from the topic of my blog here…lets continue with the progress news sources/feeds in my life, or may be our lives (only if you are young like me). During my graduation (Delhi) days news was of no importance in my life, hence I will write about my Delhi life in a separate blog.
In Bangalore (during my MBA days) I got my first email id set up in June 2000, a good friend Rishi got that done. Then afterwards I virtually read the book – ’email account for the dumb’ like in MNIK – ‘intercourse for the dumbos’. Later, my interaction with the computer baba increased a lot. My college used to have 2 computer LABS – well, that’s what it was called and we were asked to take off our shoes/slippers before entering this sacred place! I had an email account with usa.net also but overnight they become paid n I said tata to it. Free yahoo email id zindabad. My stint with emails and internet was not that great after I moved out of my college, it restarted only in 2003 when I joined ICICI, there was a lot to learn and a LOT to read. This trend continues till today. Though I am not a book reader kind of a guy. But I can read stuff on the internet…i guess my mind is like a toddler, unless i see glitzy stuff I don’t feel like getting into it.
Reading on the net started from news sites on the web, but today that too is available in various forms. You can read anything on your mobile, provided you have a gprs enabled mobile phone. which I assume everyone has these days, unless you are a totally non-happening fellow !!
You can get feed on your Google Reader account. Created and subscribe to all the news that you always wanted to track but never got the time to visit each and every site everyday! Now you need to come to reader only and you can glance through all the sites.
Twitter and Facebook are the best things to have happened to the internet, after Google of course! On twitter you can follow anyone you want who is tweeting publicly, no restriction at all. You can write to your favorite person on twitter, he/she may not read it but be rest assured they are reading it! The Best of Twitter comes out in the state of emergency or when there is a event of an larger negative impact! Like the Mumbai Terror attack! The news came to twitter before the news channels got it, and much before the news sites reported it, as submiting reports (be it any size) takes time to be uploaded but the user tweets about the incident was instant! There were so many who showed the real picture of the situation.
Well, I love Facebook as we can show off what I am upto! If it makes me a ego boaster then be it! Its fast, you get to see updates of all your friends,comment on them, like it, share photos/videos/links etc. and moreover it does not show profile visits 😉
Every organization today has an twitter account and a Facebook fan page or is preparing to get it done very soon. Many organizations also use this platform to share news updates of the company (like Perfios) and/or industry.
More than anything I trust news through ‘word of mouth’ of course from my trusted people.
your thoughts please !