Its a Dependent Ecology!

First & foremost I would like to credit my friend Phani Krishna for the title of this post (otherwise the title would have been "The New Age Barter System"..geeky!!). In one of our conversations,he mentioned these few words and they made me think. Its an open ended topic, it does not conclude. The first thing that comes to my mind when I read the title is the food chain diagram which all of us had seen in our text books during school days...Remember?? No? Let me refresh:

grass grows on soil-->rabbit eats grass-->eagle eats rabbit :-( --> eagle dies (yey!) --> eagle's body decomposed in soil

So, without divulging into the nitty gritties of the food chain, what I would like to point out is that on the internet, we humans are mentally dependent on each other just as these animals are in the food chain are physically depenedent on one another. For instance, if you like my FB status, i like yours; you comment on my photo, I comment on yours; its a give and take relationship. Even for that matter my blog, I am dependent on my readers to make myself heard just like TV shows are dependent on their viewers for good TRPs.

With all the above quoted examples, it might seem at first that - wow, the human race is really selfish, but if you keep the food chain in perspective and think, then its very natural. We are just satisfying our basic needs. Our need for acceptance or approval or being liked is only natural just like all the hungry animals in the food chain. Being accepted/noticed is the sole point for our existence on social networking sites or on most sites on the web. Its the feel good factor that underlines our existence online.

Just as there is no selfless act in real life, there ain't a single selfless act on the web! I recently read somewhere, that scientists have been researching the reason behind the altruistic behavior of human beings. One such study cited an example, a mother trying to protect her offspring is also not a selfless act because it is the natural tendency of our genes trying to protect their lineage. Few other researchers consider that it would have been impossible for the society to have developed without the cooperation that altruism fosters.

Well all of this was an observation on my part, and people are entitled to have their opinions. Its a debatable topic, to each his own!