Internet Forum Groups

 Internet Forum Groups

Most folks young and old, are on the internet nowadays.  Online internet discussion groups can be like message boards for like-minded people with a common purpose. This may be about a housing society, class group, sports group, professional group, music group, social group, etc.

One of the most important functions of homo sapiens is communication and this sets us apart from the animals.

Online forums are meant for asking questions, raising points of interest for discussion, seeking advice in general, and meeting and greet for newbies. The topics can be about anything under the sun - common ones are sports, hobbies, homes, and families in social groups.

Religion and politics are best avoided as they can raise controversies and strong opinions.

Internet Forum Groups, unlike Facebook and Instagram, 

1. Encourage dialogue between people

2. Help people communicate, empathize, rejoice, meet and greet, mourn, lament, remember incidents

3. There is group engagement, expression of solidarity ( or otherwise) &

4. Seeking emotional support, advice, help for the needy.

Disadvantages are:

1. Inappropriate comments knowingly or unknowingly

2. Saying too little (lurkers)

3. Saying too much (forwarded messages)

4. Inappropriate language. The digital message may mean altogether different when it is not worded properly

5. In large professional groups, advice from an unknown person may have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

6. Group Administrators preferably more than one. It is difficult for one person to watch the list all the time, the responses and take action. Any active good list has more than 1 administrator for this reason and a list of internet etiquette.

Internet Forum Groups are on the whole educative, proactive, and useful to most people. However, if everyone contributes equally when appropriate can make our lives easier and more peaceful.

Naturally, they do not substitute the real meeting of people by the roadside, in their homes, in meetings, or elsewhere in person. But modern lives have changed and internet forum groups are a reality that we must accept!

THE BALD AND THE BOLD TRUTH!

 THE BALD AND THE BOLD TRUTH

I surmised that I needed a haircut. The hair at the nape of the neck was beginning to curl up like the duck’s tail!

My wife sarcastically commented that any attempt at a haircut will only result in my looking like a shaved chicken!

So after putting up a brave face, I went about my own chores for a week till I was mentioning to my driver, “Take me to the …. “. 

I hesitated to use the term luthier (my violin had to have a check-up) when my Jeeves  chipped in, “ The barber Sir?”

That cooked my goose! The popular opinion thus overruling the wife's objection, I marched off to the hair salon for my haircut today.

The hairstylist opposite my house is the one I generally go to! 

The new chap looked at my head and said,” Shave?” Which really did not help matters.

My sense of insecurity about the paucity of my hair raised its ugly head again …. And I hesitatingly said,” … Hair cut?” He said, “… Humph” and looked subdued!

I added as always,” Just a trim. No knife, just the scissors and the trimmer only”.

Since childhood, my dad ( who incidentally always accompanied me to the barber to ensure my hair was cut really really short 😧 )had perpetually insisted on no knives or blades as they may create infections! 

I later learned about ‘Sycosis Barbae’ in medical college and marveled at how on earth a non-medical man and a father knew about such things nearly 60 years ago.

Cut to the chase, my barber finished trimming the duck tails and the sides in a few minutes.

He must have felt guilty doing so little and said, “Should I remove the hair from the ears too, Sir?”

I too felt that my haircut took record time for the shortest one, and suggested, “ And the eyebrows too and the nose….. and the mustache also”

The whole episode took less than 5 minutes or so!

I gave him a 500 rupee note and he returned 330 bucks; maybe the wife was right - I spent the 170 rupees on nothing!!

I pondered as to why when you are in your sixties, the hair via the nostrils and the ears … not to mention the eyebrows grow faster and longer than the scalp hair  …… at least in some men!

Some of my friends and classmates have had PRP (platelet-rich plasma therapy) and hair transplants for bald heads; somehow, being natural is good enough for me. 

Except for some dyeing …. Before dying! Haha.