Since the beginning of the lockdown, many people have been looking forward to acquire new skills. And I have seen a lot of interest in learning programming languages. I was asked by a few of my junior colleagues, interns and students on which programming language should they invest their time in.

As long as their requirement was generic application development, my advice has been mostly to learn Javascript. That might seem a little strange to many, as Javascript has been long considered as a secondary skill. This is because Javascript was mostly used to develop client side experience for web applications, and as long as you are not working in a company that has the luxury to afford a separate UI development team, Javascript was just another skill that is good to have.

[A screenshot of an application that I am working on using Javascript]

In this blog post, I would try to explain why it is no longer the case, and investing time in Javascript is rewarding than never before. Let's discuss what are the different things that you could do with Javascript.

1. Client-side development for web applications

This is the most obvious of all. Javascript has been in use as the client-side scripting language for years and has easily sidelined others such as VB script and many others.For those who are not aware of what client side scripting is, it is used to build most of that you see while using web applications (or in common language, websites). For an example, you must have noticed that an advertisement popup was displayed almost immediately after the page was loaded, this was done through a client side scripting language - which in my case was Javascript.

Javascript in its original form is increasingly not used for client side development. Rather, it is replaced with a class of frameworks called Javascript Libraries. A few popular examples would be React, Angular, Vue.js etc. which recently emerged, and legacy JS frameworks like ExtJS, Dojo etc.

There may not be quite a few without a Facebook profile. And for those who don't, I'd say they are the lucky ones - they don't have to struggle with how to use it right. In this blog post, I try to guide you introspect a little on your usage of Facebook and suggest a few changes in how you could get better at it. And of course, all these applies to other numerous social media accounts, like Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn etc. Before getting started, I would like to ask you a few questions:

1. What were your intentions when you signed up?
2. Did you ever track how much time you spend on Facebook?
3. Does using Facebook make you happier or more irked, once you are done?
4. Do you use Facebook more as a source for news?
5. Do you validate the contents that you find on Facebook?
6. How mindful are you of your privacy with respect to Facebook?

If not done already, please go through the questions and prepare an answer before you proceed. Now lets get started getting in depth on those questions.

[Image Courtesy: Mike MacKenzie via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemacmarketing/35508195764]

What were your intentions when you signed up?

Most of whom I ask this question replied that they signed up with the intensions of keeping in touch with their friends, making new friends, and constructively engage with people. As you have guessed, let me ask you the follow up question- did you feel that it was how you ended up with? Most of us would have to confess that the answer is "no".