I am eighteen years old, living in a generation of high-speed internet and social media. A lot of my friends had a social media presence from the 8th standard. I was not interested in it back then, but as a teenager, I couldn’t hold back. After three years of being on social media, I understood that it was taking a toll on my mental health. Lockdown made it even difficult to get rid of social media. One piece of advice that I followed was to take a few days off from social media. I put up a very strict target for myself and made sure I limit myself and did so. I personally think it worked quite well for me. Now, I have a lot of control over what influences me, what type of information I consume, and how much.
Social media is considered a platform where one can express their opinions and speak out to the world. A lot of people believe that it would change the world for good. But too much of anything can turn dangerous one day.
I came across the Black lives matter movement on social media. It was disheartening to see racism, it is something that needs to be addressed not only in America but in many other countries as well. The movement had its purpose and when people started discussing it on social media, it partly made the purpose insignificant. There were hashtags that turned from ‘black lives matter’ to ‘all lives matter,’ questions turned from ‘how the government would respond and solve the issue’ to ‘who tweeted what'. It was shocking to see how people were misinterpreting the agenda of the movement. This is just an example where people believed that discussions on social media could solve problems. We saw the same happen with farmer protests and protests on CAA in India.
Social media helps us in making the information spread at a rapid pace.
Another major issue is the kind of language used on these platforms and the way people celebrate hatred. Last year, we also saw how the social media giants were involved in manipulating the users’ data, interfered in political aspects of countries, and did not hold accountability when asked about the security of the users. We should not forget the fact that they are just corporate companies and have no right to invade one’s privacy. One can simply argue that social media has its advantages and ignore its disadvantages. But, the negative effects of social media have gone beyond an individual level. Our goal as a society must be to solve the root cause of these issues before they become a greater threat to society. If larger societies look at solving the threats of social media then we can have a safe digital world.
We should celebrate great minds and have healthy discussions instead of making hate statements. We should have our thoughts clear rather than being okay with hypocrisy. We can choose better words to oppose a person’s opinions. We must understand that social media can only be a platform that can spread propaganda and not a platform that can solve issues. Social media is a very powerful tool and it needs regulations. Needless freedom of speech can create unnecessary tensions in countries with great diversity.