DailyPost 2340
THE SOCIAL MEDIA NEMESIS
It was more than a decade when each one of us was happy to get connected to old friends, relatives and acquaintances; locally, regionally, nationally and globally, through the magical tool called the social media. This is was the inflection point of social relationships and the world of social web of relationships changed forever. The ones we thought we will never get connected to, not only that we were able to find with ease, we got connected never to lose them and with an intensity, continuance and convenience which belongs to a different world.
By now we have got accustomed to it and take it as our birth right. The creation of social media with huge commercial element inherently built into it started taking it in a different direction. The attention syndrome was the name of the game, the more it could get the eyeballs and keep them hooked was the success of the commercial organizations behind it. Suffice to say that there a very few and they rule the world. The sinister designs have been very aptly brought out in the documentary titled the social dilemma. Social media changed the way you engage with your world and with it, the experience, your contribution, time, focus, effort, and a projection of yourself very different from the real world. It is at the juncture of real and unreal.
From discovering the social connect to the social dilemma to anti-social media phase, now it seems to have entered the nemesis state. it seems it is out to destroy every single institution and there is no way we can control it. Clearly, it is a pandemic. But no one has the social media vaccine. Information is power they say, but what information and in which manner. The sinister designs of the social media commercial enterprises and vested interests of a variety of organizations, from terrorist ones; remember the Taliban used the social media. The governments of the day to individuals in search of being celebrities, everyone is out to derive its pound of flesh.
The democratization of the individual was being flaunted through the social media has become the demonization of the individual. Wild fire competition, avarice and jealousy fuels this medium. One upmanship 24/7 in everything. You live for this medium and not the other way round. Any number of social acts are performed and documented only for this medium. Fake word is left without any meaning. WhatsApp University has beaten all the universities combined in its outreach and impact. The individual is now endowed with a global level publishing house, with no edits, no quality control, instant release, have made him run amok. How many are interested to take it responsibly is the question the society faces today? Do we have the tools to extract responsible behavior out of it? Or make it accountable in any manner. Till then the social media party is on, on its way to our social nemesis.
WITH SOCIAL MEDIA REACH AND PACE, EVEN ONE PERSON CAN WRECK US ALL.
Sanjay Sahay