Now this is shameful. Orkut, the worldwide home for pornography and child pornography (know this) is MTV India’s youth icon.And they defeated Rang de Basanti, Abhishek Bachchan, Multimedia cellphones and the youth to win this title.
Previous winners include cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2006), actor Shah Rukh Khan (2005), cricketer Rahul Dravid (2004) and business magnate Anil Ambani (2003).
I am all surprised with this and couldn’t help asking myself a very fundamental question – what is the meaning of the word icon?
To me, icon is a person (ok!now it need not be) whom you look upto – somebody who inspires you (for e.g. my icon is BiG B)!
And the earlier MTV icons justified this standpoint – right from Anil Ambani, SRK to Dravid.
Can somebody tell me what inspiration do today’s youth derive from Orkut?
Justifying the icon status, Ashish Patil, general manager, MTV India, “Today, it’s all about communities for the youth; about hanging in versus hanging out. Orkut is the one social networking platform that does this best.” (source)
Now, that’s a killer – icon can also be somebody who lets the youth express themselves! (if that’s the case, how do Ambani/SRK/Dravid fit in the picture?)
Incidentally, earlier this month Google and MTV have signed a revenue sharing deal that will allow bloggers and other Web site operators to post MTV’s video clips while earning online advertising revenue…MTV expands its online audience and Google increases traffic to its video site(source)
Was this Orkut icon title part of the deal?
Well…you decide. Do you really think Orkut deserves this title? Or this title holds any importance anymore? I know for sure that this is the dilution of this award and has no relevance anymore.
Well Said Ashish,
Orkut has never been a iconic symbol for youth, rather its been a pathfinder for all illegal activities and agitations.
Its high time we realize how a Social networking should be dealt, now with Google opening channels to such activities and not held responsible for everything which happens in Orkut arena is truly disappointing.
Orkut has been in news fro all wrong reasons and recently the killing of a young boy due to his Orkut proximity with unknown commodities has raised many eyebrows!
I firmly disagree with Orkut symbolizing Youth and how far is MTV effective too, its all to do with Media hype!
When I loaded the homepage of pluggd.in I was taken aback. I mean “worldwide home for pornography”? I had to make double sure that the author was Ashish!
I have never used Orkut and i don’t think I am the kind of guy who finds scraping and collecting friends a really meaningful thing to do. Especially when I don’t have time to keep in touch with my real life friends who are living in my own city, getting married 20 Kms away from me etc. But I don’t think it’s fair to call Orkut that, as, if you give such a platform for the general public it WILL be used in manners that are not legal(DPS scandal sold through ebay anyone?). When around 30% of the internet is supposed to be sex, how can you run something social without sex and porn seeping into it.
And MTv thinks that Orkut is a youth icon, so be it. I don’t have anything to do with them both ( I don’t have Tv and I don’t have an Orkut account), and if the youth of India are going to buy this hype then hey, its their problem.
And even if this was not a part of a structured deal, it sure is something like I rub your back and you rub mine. gandha hai par dandha hai yeh. Actually thinking about it, I think this was a part of a structured deal. I mean when other SNS (soci.. Net.. Si..) are spending crores in advertising for 20-30 second slots, the sheer marketing value that this Mtv icon thingy will have is huge. Mtv would have been fools to have done this without any sort of payment (apart from revenue sharing).
And if Orkut is the worldwide home of Pornography and I don’t have an Orkut account, do you think I am missing all the fun?:-)
Well, to add some spice to Social network gathering pool, try this also, it would definitely be a major hits amongst the socio concern people
http://www.playboyu.com
Its a Social networking symbol from PLAYBOY!!!!!!!
Thanks Sri. But no thanks. I was just kidding.
{secretly goes to enroll}
This is REALLY shameful!! I wonder who gives a damn to MTV’s title. Maybe this is also an attempt to appease the general poilitician and public?
This is an online episode of MTV Bakra!
MTV in association with Orkut is trying to Fool all the indian Orkut users, by relating orkut to something called ‘Icon’..
I was surprised, when I open orkut and find the MTV youth icon. First reaction what s***. In retrospect.. i see it might make some sense. I heard many youngsters using orkut for communication over any other means. (the IM rage we used to have in college!!).
What ever be the basis on which this award was given, it has some semblance to it terms of the effect on youth.
Coming to porn stuff.. As yogi pointed out, web is full of that. So how is orkut very different.
Yes, I feel there might be something to this stuff behind the back, but one things for sure, orkut is going to be more popular than before.
My interest lies in how Indian SNS cope with this deluge of Orkut publicity.( For Free!!!).
@Ram: I am not questioning the success of Orkut..Its a great product, but definitely not great enough to be called ‘youth icon’ I mean what inspiration do you derive from Orkut? I am still confused!
When I first read the title to this blog on my RSS feeder, I just saw the first part and I was like….. oh no!! another Orkut hailing article.
.
But when I read it again today, I saw the Orkut bashing and my faith in Ashish was re-inforced
However, if MTV, instead of making Orkut the SNS a youth icon, made Orkut the person (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_Büyükkökten), it’s Youth Icon, I would have backed them.
Working on his 20% time in Google, Orkut developed his SNS as a hobby and managed to sell it to his employers for a hefty (read : 7 figure ) sum.
Now that DEFINITELY is iconic !!
@Yogendra…..don’t want to sound like an ass but I really didn’t get your first comment…. you open with a shock which is fine but then you meander a while and I don’t really get the point you were making…..regarding your initial shock, I don’t think its Orkut’s fault that its a home for sex offenders, but the problem is that MTV is endorsing such a thing as a youth icon…..basically we are saying that we are ok with our youth hanging out with bunch of pedophiles…….so popular site yes…..youth icon – creepy….
Also what a clown that MTV guy is….”its more about hanging in than hanging out?” what the fuck does that mean…..I’ve never seen someone use the phrase hanging in as something cool:-)
Hey Raseel!
!
Lucky that I kept your faith
Well, the real story of Orkut’s 20% time is different (atleast that’s what I have heard from stanford people) from the reality..
In any case, Orkut is a great product – but definitely not a youth icon. I mean, I fail to understand what’s iconic about it?
I actually agree with Bharad that this was the online version of Bakra and maybe, we shouldn’t take it seriously !:
What’s Orkut’s real story ? I’m really intrigued !
“Orkut, the worldwide home for pornography and child pornography” >> I disagree with this statement about orkut!
Rajiv
Here are a few links: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060904-101603
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1531986,00.html (Google and paedopiles)
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/09/05/google-surrenders-orkut-data-to-brazil
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060310-112131
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/criminal-activities-on-orkut.html
searchengineland.com/070823-090959.php
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5865
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1187859728120
Well, I love the Orkut product (and have written about that in the past too), but there is no way I accept orkut as a youth icon/. There are far too many negatives (worldwide in India as well) than positives.
Let me know what do you think.
MovieWalah
Well i was shocked at the sensationalism (and thats why i had to make double sure that the post was by Ashish.
1) I first wanted to make clear that i have never used Orkut (so i am neutral && ashish actually knows what my thoughts are towards big G),
2) then that 30% of the internet is sex,
3) So i would not be surprised if even 30% of Orkut was about sex.
So connecting the 3 points together, it seems quite sensational to start off with a “worldwide home for pornography” when only a couple of sites seem to be rehashing the same story (google Brazil fiasco) over and over.
As an example Yahoo groups are/were very useful, Usenet is very useful, but you got to be kidding yourself if you think that sex is not a part of the above two networks. Infact Yahoo groups trumps Orkut when it comes to the no of supposed scandals and misuses for which it has been actually banned in India (Did you know that?)
So QED I am not shocked that Orkut has porn. Only shocked that it was referred to as the “worldwide home of pornography”.
“there is no way I accept orkut as a youth icon” >> same here. no doubt on this.
However, to say its a “world” of porn is a bit too much to accept for me. There is still a lot of good stuff out there. Unless I explicitly search for porn, I dont find any among me, my friends & the network.
@ram – i’d rather go to debonair blog for porn and not to orkut,orkut is not the same any more,but it is trying desperately to survive with all the new design and stuff like that—but who cares i have already deleted my orkut account-so supid of what ever this mtv youth icon to be given to orkut
does this mean all youth are tied up to porn
@Yogendra
gotcha….makes it clear
I find this whole Youth Icon thing quite ridiculous… and how exactly is a multi media cell phone Icon. Don’t just frown upon orkut…they all are equally silly.. MTV is a moron in the first place..
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Orkut May or may not be Youth Icon but calling it Porn Hub is absolutely wrong .
It really depends what you search for in Orkut . If you search for your Friends you will find them . If you search for Child porn and dirty sex then also you will find them not only on Orkut but on any search engine .
Rohit Chauhan
http://www.ishouldget.com