Recently, Social Media attracted eyeballs. The alleged biased attitude of Facebook, famous social networking site was in the eyes of the storm. The government was charged for ostensibly misusing the platform for their selfish motive. The issue raised a furore. Government and the ruling party were under heavy shelling of opposition. Heated arguments and counter-arguments put forth about the Social Media platform. Ironically, the mainstream media which obtain their substantial quota of scoops from Social Media were the front-runners in the race of scathing.
The present time is an era of information. The society is running on information superhighway wherein delivering and receiving contents is fast, secure and on a real-time basis. It has opened up an entirely new vista. Like Hide Park of England, it is a platform where anyone can vent out oneself. Till recently unaccustomed to such freedom, people seem bewildered and startled. Know not how to use it effectively, they are experimenting in rather a different way. More often than not, people are using the new technology ludicrously not the way it should be. Though misused, social media has helped to unearth many hitherto unknown facts.
With computers getting smaller, lighter, powerful and easy to carry the content production, their upload and retrieval have also become fast and convenient. The Smart-phone technology has augmented the spread of Social Media by shortening the cumbersome process of content creation, processing and transmission to a great extent. The reduced data cost has added its share in the exponential growth of Social Media Platform.
Social media has emerged as a powerful tool. With the army of individual users, it becomes all the more powerful. It helps to reach a large number of audiences and affect their viewpoints. Political parties use it for canvassing and proliferation of their ideas. Various media houses find it easy to promote their medium and get large viewership. In the recent past, it was grossly misused for rumour and hate-mongering to disrupt public order and creating anarchy as well. Albeit it is difficult to ignore the ever-evolving social media platform, but it needs to be regulated by law.
A convoluted society like ours is a motley aggregation of people where every individual has something to say. Asking questions is the key to a free and frank society where every citizen has the right to express their views guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and Section 10 of The Human Rights Act 1998. People, however, tend to thrust their views onto others which culminates in a heated discussion. Such is the hardening of attitude that they behave like a bigot and intolerant. To make an argument heavy(?), use of abusive language is becoming frequent. It is unacceptable in a civilized society. However, it is not only so-called Social Media which is to be blamed, increased acrimony and use of choicest words on TV debates are also gaining currency. Unexpectedly, TV channels promote filthy languages and loose-talks apparently for their TRPs. The deterioration in quality is frequent and rampant.
A healthy discussion is an indication of sound knowledge, and a deep understanding of the topic panellists have. It is, therefore, imperative that the participants adhere to those qualities. Lopsided and unfounded arguments cause infuriation. At times during the discussion, commotion and a tug-of-war like situation occur among the panellists. Nevertheless, it does not give a person to use offensive language. The discussions would be decent and fruitful only when the arguments are courteously put forth, respecting sentiments of all. Contrarily, a steep decline in the quality of debates on TV and social media platform is becoming recurrent. It affects daily lives as well.
The growing resentment against the social media platform is because of the increasing verbal duets, use of abusive language and unwillingness of participants for a mic drop. People are part of society. The individual behaviour affects society in general. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the individual to use this technology judiciously. With logical concept-formation buttressed by reasoning and observing restrain, the use of social media can be made more effective.
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