This is information age. Yes. But it just got too easy.
We have news from across the globe minute per minute on our palm.
We are never disconnected. Writing an email has almost strictly become an official act.
Distances doesn't matter any more. News doesn't excite any more.
Now, before you judge me let me tell you something I am not a pessimist. There are definitely positives about this connected world. But somehow I feel that the world/people are falling apart than ever before and the reason seems to be the constant awareness and access to everyone and everything.
Wael Gohnim, whose Anonymous page on Facebook helped spark the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In his Ted Talk he start of with saying; I once said, "If you want to liberate a society, all you need is the Internet." I was wrong." And ended his Talk with; "Today, I believe if we want to liberate society, we first need to liberate the Internet."
Opinions are posted not formed. As very rightly pointed out in Talk, social media is polarising the people than ever before. And this is happening to every strata of the population quite unknowingly to most of them.
This first hit me, when recently my father asked me; "So you are pro-Congress" . I have been hearing this many times off late but this time was different. I collected myself and told my Dad that it is not about BJP or Congress but I am just not as hopeful of the current Government as everyone else are.
2014 was the first election in India which was largely won on Social Media campaigns and rightly so; because everyone is there. But it has tainted the timelines with extreme opinions. Today if I question a decision of the current Government and tomorrow praise some other move by them; I will be called unstable. Neutrality is lost in the fight to gain more likes/retweets and comments. No wonder most of my posts go unnoticed because it doesn't 'evoke' a response.
We all see how easy it has been for ISIS too with Social Media. Wasn't it scary to see Jehadi John posting pics? 140 Characters is all it takes.
Headlines are created by Tweets. People are jailed for posts. Revolution is triggered by a Page. Polls are won online. And sales are done through Trends. Whatever happened to the physical world? To the real human connection. The social media offers the great possibility of creating a phenomenon which could be completely delusional. The influence factor is exponential. You can't be spared to remain neutral.
What is the solution? 10 seconds. We need to give time. We are doing it all too fast. Reading the post and clicking on like button too fast. Didn't like what we read? - commenting too fast. Similarly with tweets. Give that 10 seconds, think of what you really make of the topic. Sometimes we might realize that it doesn't concern/impact us a bit and hence making an opinion might not be right thing to do. Give that 10 seconds before you discuss with somebody what you just read online. Stop before you click the share button and read the content again and give 10 seconds, All I ask of each one of us is to not rush into forming and spreading our opinions. Let's give that 10 seconds.
We have news from across the globe minute per minute on our palm.
We are never disconnected. Writing an email has almost strictly become an official act.
Distances doesn't matter any more. News doesn't excite any more.
Now, before you judge me let me tell you something I am not a pessimist. There are definitely positives about this connected world. But somehow I feel that the world/people are falling apart than ever before and the reason seems to be the constant awareness and access to everyone and everything.
Wael Gohnim, whose Anonymous page on Facebook helped spark the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In his Ted Talk he start of with saying; I once said, "If you want to liberate a society, all you need is the Internet." I was wrong." And ended his Talk with; "Today, I believe if we want to liberate society, we first need to liberate the Internet."
Opinions are posted not formed. As very rightly pointed out in Talk, social media is polarising the people than ever before. And this is happening to every strata of the population quite unknowingly to most of them.
This first hit me, when recently my father asked me; "So you are pro-Congress" . I have been hearing this many times off late but this time was different. I collected myself and told my Dad that it is not about BJP or Congress but I am just not as hopeful of the current Government as everyone else are.
2014 was the first election in India which was largely won on Social Media campaigns and rightly so; because everyone is there. But it has tainted the timelines with extreme opinions. Today if I question a decision of the current Government and tomorrow praise some other move by them; I will be called unstable. Neutrality is lost in the fight to gain more likes/retweets and comments. No wonder most of my posts go unnoticed because it doesn't 'evoke' a response.
We all see how easy it has been for ISIS too with Social Media. Wasn't it scary to see Jehadi John posting pics? 140 Characters is all it takes.
Headlines are created by Tweets. People are jailed for posts. Revolution is triggered by a Page. Polls are won online. And sales are done through Trends. Whatever happened to the physical world? To the real human connection. The social media offers the great possibility of creating a phenomenon which could be completely delusional. The influence factor is exponential. You can't be spared to remain neutral.
What is the solution? 10 seconds. We need to give time. We are doing it all too fast. Reading the post and clicking on like button too fast. Didn't like what we read? - commenting too fast. Similarly with tweets. Give that 10 seconds, think of what you really make of the topic. Sometimes we might realize that it doesn't concern/impact us a bit and hence making an opinion might not be right thing to do. Give that 10 seconds before you discuss with somebody what you just read online. Stop before you click the share button and read the content again and give 10 seconds, All I ask of each one of us is to not rush into forming and spreading our opinions. Let's give that 10 seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment