Status Quo

How many statuses can one have? You enter the world as so-and-so's son. You're cousin to someone rich, nephew to someone important, bench friend of someone whose dad is powerful

Status Quo

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Status Quo

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You get a house, a car and sunglasses that are appropriately blingy enough to define you.u00a0 And a wife who is someone's daughter, granddaughter, niece and friend. You would think that's about enough status to define you.

But not at all.
It is now de riguer to have a Gtalk status (busy, not busy, idle, away, or a custom message) and a Google buzz status (and frankly I don't know how that helps as you follow the same people on your Gtalk.) You just have to have an Orkut status (that is, if you're eighteen years old and still stuck with Google's social networking sites.).
On Facebook, it's simply not enough to have a status message on what one is doing right now. It's also de rigeur to have a relationship update, an event attendance itinerary, and a super-like list.

One of my "friends", this morning, in a desperate attempt at being different, and collecting comments, has put up a blank post.u00a0It's become absolutely critical to feel the pressure of being constantly interesting and witty and trying-too-hard smartypants to be different and constantly update your tweets if you want to be interesting enough to have legions of people following you. As Mahesh Bhupathi found out to his chagrin recently, it may not pay to be too exciting on Twitter. Especially in Espania!

There are those who get themselves a scribbd update, a minglebox status and an office intranet setting (which if you're smart enough should always be set at "working hard" and never "chilling"!)u00a0

And now, it's just so not uncool to not have a BB (Blackberry) status. Just so that the people who are in your groups can immediately sympathise with you (if your status is set to "working overtime") or envy you (when it's "in Bangkok for Anisha's birthday") or just be a comforting shoulder via BBM ("become single again").

In the android world of apps, there is a new one being designed just now. It automatically comes up with quirky one-liners, and updates your status, on various sites and groups and phones. The inventor's status meanwhile reads "thinking up status."