Malaysian Indian teens' attention seeking behaviour on Facebook

Malaysian Indian teens’ attention seeking behaviour on Facebook

Disclaimer: This is merely the point of view of the author and it’s directed at a certain group of teens only.

I am noticing an alarming amount of Malaysian Indian teens looking to their Facebook pages for acceptance and fandom and all of it comes off as attention seeking as well as plainly stupid. But, for such kids, this is swag yo! From posting countless “self taken” pics, to their tags, and weird, protracted names like LovelyGurl Shamia, LovelyPonnuGivitahChello, ImmaHotKambethuPonnuShalni, SwagPaiyanSharan, HemaSquirrelPantz, etc (end of MY thinking capacity and only the beginning of their thinking capacity), owntage, and writing wrong English and Malay, this has become a Facebook phenomenon.

Now, let me dissect this phenomenon one at a time:

First, the selfies. I did not own a phone until I went to university. Although my parents could afford it, they thought I didn’t need a phone because I was under their roost. Nowadays parents buy their kids smartphones and some teens use their smartphones stupidly, snapping endless selfies, duckface, poutface as well as exposing photos. Then they have this ownz and owntage thingy going on. They ask who would like to own their pictures and those who would like to own would comment. They also have large numbers of likes from their similarly and equally pea brained Facebook friends for their photos and selfies. And, for every new friend request they accept, they write on each other’s walls, “Conteng my wall with your intro” or “Jangan sombong ye, keep in sentuh.” These kids take Manglish into a whole new level. These teens also have insane numbers of Facebook friends and family members won’t be on their list for obvious reasons.

Next, the names; the real names of these kids are anybody’s guess what more their father’s name and initials. But, I must say that their genius is in full swing when the kids name themselves. Inthe arive padiple kaamicha neenggelam nalla varuvingge. Enggenge sonna kekranggeh..

Then comes in the way they write English and Malay. You is youh or yiu and those words which ends with g, they replace the g with q, for example, swag becomes swaq. And, they alternate capital letters with small letters. For example, updating statuses like ‘CaN’t TaKe It AnYmOrE, ThE WoRld Is So CrUeL..’ (It took me 5 minutes to write that) and the ensuing comments would be typed in the same way. Still, some write without putting fullstop. Trust me, it needs a superpower to write like that. As for Malay, suka is shuke, the portmanteau ‘lah‘ becomes ‘laai’ and profanity is used liberally too.

And then, there are love professions by these kids; puppy love taken on extreme level. Exchanging rings, putting names like ‘ImmaHisgulfie’ and ‘He’sMaBoyfie’ and all sorts of crazy stuff. I think they’ll start a kulfi ice cream chain one day. One boy even tied a thali around his girlfriend’s neck and updated the photo of it on Facebook with the caption, “My Pondati.” And, they upload pics of themselves changing rings with their boyfriends and have hundreds of likes and comments from their equally crazed friends. Whether the relationship would lead to adulthood marriage, well, your guess is as good as mine. Kids like these should have been born in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India or Iraq where their parents marry them off when they reach the age of 11 to 12. They don’t need to go to school too. While teens in the countries I mentioned salivate for education so much, they are ready to risk their lives to go to school, in the case of Malala Yousafzai, look at these kids. I call this soothu kolepe.

Gang recruits operate on Facebook and gullible Indian young boys and some girls join in the illusion that it will bring them fame, power and money, dismissing the fact that they can be arrested and squander half of their lives in prison.

On why this is happening on Facebook is because the apathy and nambikei on behalf of the parents. My niece is into this fad and her mother never bothers about it and since it is like that, I don’t too; I’m just an aunt. And, blind trust parents have on their teen kids and these teens’ effective acting only foster this trend and more and more teens are getting into this as we speak. At home, they will be goody two shoes and turn otherwise outside and especially in Facebook and if someone whistle blows their children’s disgraceful activities on Facebook to their parents, they simply refuse to believe and deny to the hilt and hold their ground that their kids are angels descended from heaven. I am not making this up. It is happening in my family and almost all my family members are oblivious to it and I’m powerless to stop it because of the alibi the parent, in this case, my sister, grant her teen kid who is barely 14.

Let’s face the fact; we are a marginalized community here and the only ticket for us to escape this distressing situation is through education. We should strive to be the best of the best and develop skills to uplift ourselves and our community. Owning a Facebook account and having 5K over friends or followers, mis-spelling English and Malay, gang affiliation and have asinine Facebook names won’t be counted as workable skills in your resume. I just hope that these kids don’t get off track and become the dregs of society later on.

Disclaimer: This is merely the point of view of the author and it’s directed at a certain group of teens only.

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Tags: Facebook Malaysian Indians Teen

1

ellyza
May 25, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Kids nowadays are so different from us. We go through the same growing path, but with different surrounding. Their surrounding makes what they are now.

:: the most irritated thing for me on facebook is the alien-language-with-extra-weird-alphabet and tHiS oNe. LiKe sERiOuSly!

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2

Dr Velu
May 25, 2014 at 3:35 pm
Here again we are grappling with technological advancement. Our parents took some time to understand us, the ‘educated’ ones and the newfound freedom which came along. Now, the younger generation is moving on. Can we curb? Not indefinitely.
We have to keep up the pace and educate these kids. Show the way. Never say no way.
However, I wonder what our schools are doing with the RM50 or so annual collection from each student, purportedly for computer labs. Bring fb into the classroom. Teach them the perils. Tell them how insane behaviour is going to affect them. Get their parents involved.
Not all will follow advice for sure but at least better one bird in the hand than two in the bush.
Just my two cents. I may slightly disagree on certain views but I admire the care you have towards our younger generation.

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3

Raj
May 25, 2014 at 3:46 pm
I hardly think attention seeking teenagers are confined to any particular race. Facebook isn’t the core cause of being uneducated.

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4

naziro
May 25, 2014 at 4:45 pm
Well written.if all this creativity and passion shown in studies and daily life values.

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5

Lavinia
May 25, 2014 at 5:13 pm
I agree with this article. Im just so surprised with all these young kids. Not all are bad , there are still some good ones, but very few. And with the vulgar words they use, they act like grown ups. Thanks for delivering this beautiful message.

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6

Ell Aruna Lee
May 25, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Gotta say, the comments below caught my attention more than the article itself. Whatever it is, there will be lessons to be learned in everyone’s live, its either the easy way or the hard way. No one escapes from that, and it doesn’t matter in which generation they’re in. God bless you all. Take the good leave the bad. Live laugh love fullest.

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7

Sattya Shankary
May 25, 2014 at 10:03 pm
I totally agree with you! These indian teenagers are a nuisance.

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8

ugypt
May 25, 2014 at 10:29 pm
i love living in the 90’s era……

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9

vanessa jean
May 26, 2014 at 1:46 am
this is stupid. get your head out of your ass its 2012 not 1912. children are smarter,more exposed, more mature than kids would have been 10-15 years ago and these social networking sites help them develop better communication with people globally.. so screw your stone-age ass..

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10

seetha archunan
May 26, 2014 at 2:44 am
I totally agree with ur statement.. The social network is not creating any bad personality in people… Its just that the person choice to be like that…. Im just 23 and I can differentiate good and bad in fb y cnt them… Kids nowadays are more advance in everything… Even they dun feel shame.. They cn promote death in fb…

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11

Kiernan
May 26, 2014 at 7:07 am
I nVR KnEw aBoUT aLL TheSe UnTiL NOw. yAy i HaS SwAq N bAd MaNgRisH nOw. MY aRsE HuRtS tHoUgH

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12

daks
May 26, 2014 at 11:28 am
I don’t know why people take such great offence to something as simple as this. Granted the fact that certain points may have struck a nerve or two; but this article is not condemning a single act but rather a collection of acts put together. Looking at it from a bigger picture may help. About the ‘selfie’ point; it’s not a big deal, some like it, some don’t. I take ‘selfies’ yet I seem to be unharmed by the words of this writer. Secondly, if you want to keep ‘cushioning’ criticism how on earth do you expect people to know the truth let alone accept it. Fact of the matter is, I wouldn’t want my child to end up like that. Period.

Education. I repeat, education. Education. Education. Did I say it enough? I don’t know about everyone else, but education is definitely the key to betterment. To think otherwise is silly; to say the least. Education does not necessarily mean acing maths and science in school or speaking perfectly. Education can come in all forms; a simple lesson in morality, priorities, self-worth; all these are also forms of education (notice how I keep using the word education because some people don’t actually get the importance)

Everyone is a hypocrite, everyone here can sit down behind their computers/laptops/smartphones and act like keyboard warriors (myself included). To condemn this article is doing the same as the accusation itself. #justsaying

Kudos to the writer for saying it when many wouldn’t.

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13

Sharvind Kumar
May 26, 2014 at 5:01 pm
I am sorry to say that. I am 15 years old indian boy. But I’ve never wrote things like that. Furthermore I am having a group called double dose in Facebook. I create the page and telling some advices that can improve a persons life. So we can’t critique all of them once. We can’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone has their own ability. We must tell to them and make them understand. That’s all my opinion. I am sorry if I hurt you any kind.

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14

youngspeaker
May 27, 2014 at 3:40 am
Thankyou for finally pointing this out! I saw alot of the comments and I think those who are ‘offended’ and urge you to do action on it etc2 are keyboard warriors themselves. they are missing out the whole point of the articles. You are ACTUALLY making some actions by emphasize on this issue while many just ignore and walk past it.. to be honest, (i’m not indian) , i saw alot alot of my indian friends/teenagers post on facebook, social media.. and i cant resist to feel so awkward and laugh at their attempt to gain attention and ridiculous behavior they shown on FB. everything you wrote are spot on. the names, the selfies , the grammar , show off their bf/gf , tryin to be swag and all that. I’ve been through that era and i totally understand why they did that. growing up, when I look back at those, I feel so ashamed and embarrassed. those are the times when i’m obsessed with friendster, facebook, without the parents knowing such thing existed. you are totally right, parents play a major roles in this. dont let the indian society get mocked , joked around and humiliated by other races. in high school, indians are always labeled as the lovey dovey , gangster , attention seeking group of people, so we dont want that to stick forever in our youth generation nowadays. I’m good friends with many indians who are mature , intelligent , smart and classy, so i believe the indian community in malaysia still have a bright future and bring hope to the nation. keep up the good work and strive for change! #support

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15

Concerned Teen
May 27, 2014 at 11:10 am
Well, whatever the disagreements are, I think this article hit home. It got all of us talking about it. Even if its just for the sake of agreeing to disagree, it made us aware that this issue exists! So how about instead of arguing about comparison between generations (and mind yourself, I belong to the generation the writer speaks about), who’s smarter and who’s an ass, let’s take steps to make a change. If you don’t agree with the writer, then just close the site! You don’t have to give yourself hypertension to condemn anyone. If you can’t contribute anything positive, don’t contribute anything at all. Some people actually take the time to write all this down and post their comments so it may benefit others. Not everyone is a keyboard warrior. We could very easily point the same finger at you. You who call us “keyboard warriors”, you are one yourself! I’d dare you to say that to us face-to-face. It might be a surprise to you, but what I’ll say in person is what I write. If you can, at least stop being a hypocrite in that matter.

I agree with the writer views of the importance of education to get them out of this dirt hole, but you also need wisdom. They are 2 VERY different things. We as children need to be taught how to educate ourselves even AFTER school and university. Just because we have a degree, doesn’t mean we’re educated. If knowledge for you stops there, then I’m sorry to say, but you’ll be an educated fool. The habit of reading books by people like Paulo Coelho, Robin Sharma, Osho, Eckhart Tolle needs to be seeded by parents. Yes, teens have all the rights to read Twilight, Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments. Heck, I read the latter 2 myself! But both of these need to run parallelly. Start young and simple like with ‘The Alchemist’. Its fiction but has so much to learn from. Or if its too much for the child/teen, get ’em started on the track with advanced literature. Of course not many today enjoy Jane Austen’s work, but they might like Dan Brown perhaps. Use these powerful tools to not only make us (children) smarter, but yourself too. If parents don’t cultivate these habits in themselves, there is very little to none of a chance that their children will. Then, we end up with issues like this. Wise teens don’t do (seriously) stupid things they’ll regret. We have fun, but know our limits.

My words may be sharp and hurtful, and if you find that it is unsuitable and shouldn’t be so, feel free to confront me. It’s in black and white here, so you should not have any problems quoting me. 😉 Have a nice day!

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16

Velmurugan
Aug 29, 2017 at 4:29 am
Stumbled on this site fort the first time. I appreciate tamil people for trying to preserve our culture. But first start recognizing yourself as tamizhar instead of Indian. Otherwise the Hindi wala India will soon whitewash you guys as sanskrit Indians.

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