SOCIAL MEDIA - IMPACT ON HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIETY
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Feburary 27th , an Indian pilot wing commander Abhinandan Varthman's plane crashed in pakistani territory, pakistani army captured him and he was being mentally harrased , the whole nation was in tears of sorrow. With in 60 hours the pride of our nation back to us . Unlike the usual fanbase of bollywood stars now the real hero of our nation was getting the real attention and respect from people . This is what I call the power of social media. Social media shifted the focus of our nation from cross border fighting to bringing the pilot back home .
One day my teacher asked me to prepare a speech on impact of social media on human behaviour , I agreed and when she left the lecture hall the first thing i did was i picked up my phone and started scrolling my news feed on facbook and that is when i realised that woww... what an impact this social media has on me , I realised that social media is no longer just a free time thing , now it is a very essential part of my life or a habbit i must say.
We live in a democratic country India , here each and every person has a fundamental right to express there opinions in front of everyone (
fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression) , but the reality is that there is exactly no one to listen . So yes it is true that social media has given an access to people to practically put there opinion forward in front of everyone . Social media is a powerful tool for raising awareness, for both brands and causes. In addition to giving everyone with access a voice, it connects us all to diverse ideas, backgrounds, and cultures.Let us take some examples here .
1. #ME TOO MOMENT
#me too moment is a global campaign that provided a platform several women across the world to come up and speak about prevalent sexual
abuse and assault . This campaign started when famous Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano encouraged all women who had ever been sexually
harassed to write ‘me too’ as a status. Soon, thousands of women answered her tweet worldwide. Employed more than 2 million times in 85 countries in only 2 days, #MeToo has been adapted in many languages: #YoTambien in Spain, #QuellaVoltaChe in Italy, #BalanceTonPorc in France or even #أنا كمان in Arab countries.
2. #BLACKLIVESMATTER
One of the most significant examples is the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. Created in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman – a policeman who shot to death Trayvon Martin, a 17-years-old black man – this hashtag was used approximatively 30 million times on Twitter with 17,002 mentions per day on average. The reason for this success is the black community’s wish to be seen, listened and understood. It is the desire to show they are numerous even though they are considered as a minority. Behind this hashtag, there is the opportunity for them to prove that strength lies in numbers and that they can act to make things change.
Be it Pulwama attack, air strike , article 370 or any other social or political issue i get all my information from social media and after knowing it all i am the most patriotic person ever , desh bhakt you know ,I too start sharing these issues on my own profile and feel like an activist . But the question is does my single like or a share is enough to actually bring out any change ? Is that the only contribution that my nation needs from its youth ?
There might be many good sides of social media but when mis used social media is not less than a nuclear weapon .Social media some times play a destructive role in inciting communal violence in India . It might bring a threat to national security as it is used as a tool for drug trafficking, money laundering and match-fixing, terrorism, instigating violence and for spreading rumors etc . According to reports Uttar Pradesh Police, a dubious video clip that reportedly showed the execution by mob of two Hindu Jat boys that was circulated fuelled the riots in Muzaffarnagar. But the footage was later found to be a video shot in Pakistan and its role in Muzzaffarnagar riots is still in question, the video became so popular that its snapshots were also published into the pages of some Hindi dailies . Some terror groups use social networking sites to radicalise and spread hatred among people as it is the most convinient way to connect to several people around the world .The latest case in point is the Basirhat incident where a Facebook post sparked troubles. At least one video was in circulation just before the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 — footage that was two years old and shot somewhere in a tribal area of Pakistan.
Similarly, a video showing a man being hacked to death, supposedly somewhere in Nawada was in reality a video from Bangladesh. In a more recent case, at least a couple of videos showing people celebrating Pakistan's Champions Trophy victory in India are fake — one is a video from the neighbouring country and another an old one from gujarat .Such videos promotes negative image of people and community completely destroying the peace of our nation .
Social media is sometimes also used to spread fake news and one major example of this is the story of child lifters . False rumours of child-kidnapping gangs on a prowl have emerged on social media leading to mob attacks across the country. A transgender person was beaten to death in West Bengal on the suspicion of being a child-lifter. At least 15 separate cases of violence have been reported from Madhya Pradesh. Two women were beaten by locals in Bihar on similar allegations.Child-kidnapping rumours had caused at least 30 deaths in mob lynchings last year. The rampant misinformation has found credence once again with numerous individuals sharing unauthenticated videos and photographs across social media platforms.
So no doubt that sometimes social media promotes aggression among people . Now if we talk about its impact on human behaviour , after seeing those pictures of beautiful dresses , that amazing food and those cool vaccation pictures on instagram we too get fascinated and wish if could have the same . But eventually when it comes to us, suppose if we go out on a vaccation we dont live the moment, we dont enjoy it . And even at the of the day the only verbal communication that we have is ,can u please send me the photographs . I think I have figured it out we dont want to be we want show others that look i am so happy , my life is so happening #blessed #love my life , completely ignoring the reality of our life .
Along with sharing the brighter side of our life we also share the darker one , i regularly come across some posts on social media saying "no more fake friends in my life ",or that one "feeling destroyed with 64 others " . My question is, is that the right way to tackle your problems.Families sitting together are now lost in silence except for the occasional outburst of laughter from an amusing video received. Day to day lifestyle of an individual is no more a private thing , if u eat good food or do anything new it must go on social media , dosent matters if your family is aware about it or not .ace-to-face interactions which are necessary for developement of personalities, learning social skills and communication skills, have been removed from the lives of people, especially younger generations. Children are having a difficult time interacting with others, which might lead to unsociable behavior.
Dear readers , according to me social media is neither good nor bad its just a tool that we are using to do things that we have always done . So its not the darker side of social media it is darker side of us so start controlling your habbits on social media before they start controlling you . Or ask yourself if they already do ?