Ever since the Harvard Sophomore Mark Zuckerberg brought FB to life in 2004, it has become the most popular social networking vehicle, with more than 300 million active users worldwide now. With a design that cuts down visual clutters and threats like spam, it has distinguished itself favorably from its rival social networks.
With the greater availability of Internet, Nepali teenagers are also throbbing this network. With FB chats replacing messenger chats and lots of interesting and even silly applications mushrooming almost daily, it definitely has Nepali teens hooked to it.
We asked some Kathmandu teenagers to share their FB experience, and here’s what they say:
Sneha Khanal, 16,
Budhanilkantha School
I use Facebook almost everyday when I’m not in hostel. I don’t like many Facebook applications, and I would join the anti-Farmville group if requests came to me. One application I like is the social interview; it’s fun to know more about friends.
FB is a time-pass for me, and once I’ve been at it for almost 14 hours continuously, chatting, commenting, uploading photos, and changing status. I even get very personal sometimes when I’m low. I usually pour it all out through the FB status.
Astha Thapa, 15,
Budhanilkantha School
The best part of FB for me is tagging photographs, and the worst part is getting too many requests and invitations. It’s so irritating at times. I’m not an FB applications fan at all. I used to like those quizzes initially and sent out many quiz requests myself. But not any longer, especially now that I’ve figured how cumbersome it can be.
Facebook is fun and I think it’ll outlive Twitter and other social networks.
Dharma Chhetri, 19,
Nepal college of information technology
I’m online on FB most of the time. It links up friends and I get to make some cool new friends out of it. That’s the best part. Besides that, I like playing Farmville and it keeps me so hooked sometimes that I end up talking about harvesting crops and gathering coins. I have other accounts in Hi5, Twitter, Orkut, but FB has always been the best. I find it more flexible and it’s got most of the interesting applications. One application I use everyday is the daily horoscope, and I start my day with that. I would surely call myself a Facebook addict.
Adrit Rai, 17,
Kantipur Valley College
I use FB once or twice a week. I love to upload photos and post comments on it. Facebook chat is a favorite pastime, and it sucks if no one’s online.
I have Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Namrata Shrestha, and Zenisha Moktan in my friends list. These might be fake accounts but they do have their photographs in it. However, it really doesn’t matter. It’s just interesting to have these people in my friends list. I’m hoping these people are online sometimes so I get to verify them.
Norbin Mainali, 17,
Goldengate International
It’s been 11 months since I started using FB, and it’s replaced all my messenger chats. Nowadays, more people are online on FB than on messengers. So FB chat is where I get to talk to most of my friends. I use Facebook for an hour almost everyday. It’s fun to go over the latest updates on friends and their photographs, specially. I guess I’d include my parents if they had FB profiles of their own.
Razz Lama, 16,
Caspian Valley College
For me, FB is where I get to make new friends. Once I added a girl, thinking she was my friend, as there was no photo in her account. But it turned out this was another person. Still we became good friends.
It’s been almost a year since I started using FB and I log in at least once a day. I include just my brothers in my friends list, not sisters. Parents are out of the question. This is our personal space, you know.
Shila Thapa, 17,
Trinity High School
My friends introduced me to FB just recently. I like it because it keeps me updated with what’s going on in the lives of our friends. I often publish my poems in it. Expressing ourselves through the site is fun, and what other people think also matters. That’s why I love to read comments. It would be so very boring if there was no commenting.
One thing I don’t like about the portal is it takes a lot of time to upload photos. I’m not sure who is at fault, but I wish it could be done at a finger’s snap.
Selina Thapa, 17,
Trinity High School
It’s just been two months since I started using FB. I use it 2-3 times a week, mostly in my college or at cyber. I started using it basically to stay in touch with my school-level friends, but I’m also making new friends out of it. So that’s quite good. I didn’t use any social networking sites prior to FB. But from what I know I think it’s catching up with Nepali teens very fast, and some people are even addicted to it which I don’t think is too good.
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