Wordly & Worldly Wise by Vanishree Bhatt

Until very recently (about four years ago), I thought that hashtags were some meaningless, 'tag along' tools to state the obvious. On Facebook, I was still getting used to certain images of  a distinct quality that were being shared with a long list of words following the '#' symbol. Each of those words and its synonyms described the objects in the picture which anyone with myopia could see and fathom without wearing glasses. This was my first reaction.  But my biggest curiosity was the separate folder titled, 'Instagram' that contained all those images, overplayed with words following the #. It was quite bizarre for me to find a girl pouting in red lipstick overtaxing her post with #poutylips #pout #redlips #redlipstick, etc.  Now, I may have been a Luddite when it comes to accepting social media platforms besides Facebook and moving on from a basic to must-have smartphones. But (thankfully) I was not too naive or imaginative to assume that t...

New Year is around the corner and naturally, its the perfect time to either guilt-trip or laud ourselves for the decisions made and promises kept throughout 2018. To skip all the bitterness, avoid panic attacks of underachievement and frustrations about unmet goals, it's important to make resolutions that are not far-fetched. Since 2018 was surprisingly a rewarding and pleasant year (wrt work and some aspects of my personal life), I concur that it was all because of sensible thinking and being less aspirational when making resolutions. I precisely remember taking a mental note of the things I wished for myself when the previous year ended on a very bad note. My new bucket-list had all things that were all quite elementary and included areas where I sensed an 'urgency' for change. An inner-voice succinctly outlined my goals for most of 2018 and set the context for the positive changes to help me cruise through the year. Leaving aside all philosophical idea...

It is an internet-driven world and networking for the millennial generation clearly means, reaching people online. Long-lost families have been united, friends and lovers have met, businesses and professionals have connected by the mere act of searching, browsing profiles, and clicking the invite/add button! Somewhere between staying proactive and digitally literate to connect with the right individuals on social media, there lingers a subtle doubt-- are we stalking? Years into the writing (content development) business, I noticed how a small change in my LinkedIn profile could get views and new connections. Unlike my naive, optimistic, and much younger self, the new me is aware that the majority of the online attention I receive across social media platforms is the result of my connections' curiosity and insatiable need to network. On the other hand, stalking prevails as an uncomfortable truth that every professional like me with a certain degree of online visibility wo...