Famous Online Better Than Famous Offline.

Most people in the Western world and large sections in the rest of the world have a real life persona and an online persona. This is especially true of young people, also known as the Internet generation. All most everybody these days communicates by email, rather than rely on the good old postal services. Texting and video chatting have become mainstream and e-commerce has willy nilly entered all our lives. Don’t we remit money or receive it into our bank accounts online, and haven’t we all used the credit card to make purchases online? We all swear by e-bay for God’s sake!

The point that one is trying to make here is that we have a very active online life that co-exists with our offline life. But a debate really arises when we have to choose between performing the same function in the traditional or off line fashion or the contemporary online way. Take the case of making payments. You have the option of writing a cheque or making an online transfer. Cheques are relatively safer, but can’t match the speed or convenience of an online money transfer.

Another example is socialising. Communicating via the net obliterates distance and time differences, but if you want to enjoy a coffee together with your friend or watch the sunset together, you have to do it offline. But the wonderful thing is that as online technology evolves we may be able to even do things that we right now consider impossible. Like smelling coffee. The coming days will see the Online vs Off line debate getting more and more interesting.

What makes online famous a different kettle of fish?

The thing about being spotted on the Internet is that it is a very democratic and a cheap as well as fair process where everybody gets a shot at being successful, whereas in the traditional model you need to knows how to work the levers of the system for things to really work for you. Entertainer PaulaAbdul one time judge of American Idol felt that there weren’t enough avenues for young people to go out there, showcase their talent and get famous. So she launched an online service called Audition Booth which lets budding talents upload their videos which will then be available to talent scouts. They can also search the site for upcoming gigs and auditions and send across their credentials. This site is free for people to use, though there is a premium service as well which is available for a charge.

With the advent of Internet all of that has changed. The average person has more than a hundred friends on the various social networking sites and these are a valuable resource in case you want the word spread about something. Word can spread like a viral infection on the Internet and make a mega celebrity out of nobody in a matter of two or three days. This even has a term-viral marketing.So you see the Internet has changed the rules of the game completely and the goal posts have been moved a lot closer for everyone’s convenience.

The online world has assumed a huge amount of significance in today’s times and this is only going to grow and grow. It would therefore stand you in very good stead to mark your presence in it in a very telling way. You simply have to develop your social presence in a manner that you are effectively able to leverage your attributes, skills, likes and dislikes to a vast and appropriate audience.

Social networking sites led by Facebook and Twitter are fast and ruthlessly efficient enablers of this- far more effective than traditional media like newspapers and television, and best of all cheaply available and accessible to everyone. Today the youth are defining and constantly re-shaping and evolving the digital world by their socialising, entertaining, learning and studying and following the latest trends online. You are not a part of it, you are dead. Period.

In order to be heard you have to be on top of the form. E-mail and Instant Messaging are baby steps in this world. You have to be part of online communities where you contribute actively and constantly interact while at the same time learning to innovate. Be it blogging, web-casting, trending, on-line trading-your transactions will build up for you an online profile by which people will gauge you. Much like in the world of finance, each country or for that matter each individual has a credit rating, so it is in the world of the Internet. You have to make your presence felt.

Uninterrupted Economic Success

The Internet not only empowers the individual but by extension the community, the nation and finally the world. In countries like India for example with every passing year Internet penetration increases and with it increases the opportunity for the Indian youth who have already gained a formidable reputation for their IT prowess, to make India the crucible of new ideas and innovation.

Originally published at https://content-rules.blogspot.com.