Dear Editor,
Social media is the collective of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. The most prominent among them for commoners is the Facebook and from adolescent to the people of geriatric age are tuned to it. No doubt social media has a contributing role in widening of the world we live in, and easy communication around the world has definitely made us closer to other parts of the world. The increasing popularity of social sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, social networks has gained attention as the most viable communication choice for the bloggers, article writers and content creators. But not all consequences of this technology are good ones. Like the way it has allowed us to hide behind screens and limited our social interaction face to face. We get the feeling of being social without having to go out and socialise and it is a deceptive socialisation. The misuse of Facebook is just a tool that has seemed to make it easier to cheat, or to do things that cross a boundary in our relationship, as there is the sheer number of stupid, vain people on Face book. It gives us the feeling of being a friend (or having friends) without having to put in any actual work to build the relationship. One of the negative effect of social media or network is it leads to addiction. Spending countless hours on the social sites divert the focus and attention from a particular task. On one hand affecting health especially eye sight and the other it lowers the motivational level of the people, especially of the teenagers and students. The reason is that sometimes people share photos on social media that contains violence and sex, and the availability of free porno sites which can damage the behavior of kids and teenagers. The more we post, comment and like, the more we feel closer to other people (whether or not we know them in person). Social media is encouraging people to become more public with their private lives; it gives us false sense of connection. It creats negative trait that disallows a person’s own idea or implementation of thought. A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click and it can either increase or decrease productivity.
I think that the effects of social media have been somewhat balanced, to be honest. There are many good things about it, and many bad things. If we keep our life centered in reality and use social networking as a small part of it, it would be just fine.
Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
Udhampur.