Social media — a licence to kill
ALMOST two years back, the Global Religious Futures (GRF) Pakistan, published a survey report which claimed that only one in five Pakistanis was habitual of reading a newspaper. In another report, the Datareportal pointed out that there were about 71.70 million registered users of YouTube and 43.55 million registered users of Facebook in Pakistan till January 2022. The StatCounter had a slightly different story to tell the same year. It issued a report in December 2022, which indicated that out of total social media users, 84.85% used Facebook, 12.44% Twitter, 1.11% YouTube and 1.08% used Instagram.
Whatever the number game be, one thing is very much clear that the total number of social media users in Pakistan is far more than the total number of print and electronic media users. In other words, with the passage of time, the social media has become more influential than the print and electronic media. This growing popularity must have a very positive impact on our society but unfortunately, the situation is otherwise. People love to use social media but at the same time they don’t trust it. It seems the main objective of the social media users is entertainment not awareness. People don’t take the information available at different social media forums serious.
Just after the horrible 9th May, some of the ‘social media masters’ started playing a very dirty game in the garb of ‘Freedom of Expression’. Such social media masters are commonly known as the Vlogers. They tried their best to convince their innocent viewers that whatever happened there in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi and other cities of Pakistan was the result of a very organized planning allegedly designed by Pakistan’s security institutions. Particularly when a mob tried to enter the Corps Commander House Lahore by force, there was a man leading that mob. That man was apparently having army officers like hair-cut and reportedly was trying to mislead the people by his appearance that he belonged to some security institution.
Later it came to light that the person had no linkage with any security institution. Unfortunately rather unethically, some Vlogers succeeded in concocting different fishy stories about him. The baseless propaganda of those Vlogers added a lot of troubles to the already disturbed scenario. That is also something very painful that in Pakistan, though we have rules and regulations for the social-media users but those are rarely observed. That careless attitude has not only affected the credibility of the social media but also added turbulence and unrest in the society. It is something very alarming that sensible people are gradually losing their trust and confidence in the information available at different social media forums.
According to media reports, more problematic are the Vlogers who are working from outside Pakistan. Some of them are no doubt Pakistanis but many of them just use fictitious Pakistani identity and pretend to be from Pakistan. Such Vlogers are nothing but the ‘Mouth-Pieces’ of the forces hostile to Pakistan. Their sole objective is to create disturbance in Pakistani society and defame the security forces of Pakistan. They are misguided by the notion that by doing so they would succeed in weakening the security forces of Pakistan which are not only a safety wall around the whole nation but also the strongest binding force for the people of Pakistan. Certainly the government of Pakistan will have to plan a strategy for such problem creators who are operating from outside Pakistan.
Social media is going to ‘crush’ all other media tools; some people are of the opinion. This apprehension could be closer to reality to some extant but the way this tool is being misused, it would lose its credibility. The most important thing for the survival of print, electronic as well as of the social media is trust and credibility. We see that every day, hundreds of newspapers are published in different languages all over the world; some of the newspapers simply ‘die’ a few months after their ‘birth’ but there are countless which are still on the scene after decades and decades. Same is the case with electronic media channels. In short, be it the newspapers or TV channels, only those survive which succeed in earning ‘trust and credibility’. Social media forums will also have to strive for earning trust and credibility. It is an undeniable fact that the role of social media cannot be curtailed and minimized in modern days as this connectivity forum is getting more powerful and effective day by day just because it is easily approachable for everyone.
In civilized societies, social media is used not only for entertainment and amusement but also for the purpose of research, studies, inventions, exploration and discoveries. Unfortunately in countries like Pakistan, most of the people use this connectivity tool for the purpose of entertainment and amusement. Such users have yet not understood the value and importance of this connectivity tool. Most of the social media users are even unaware of the benefits they could get from this modern connectivity platform. In their search for amusement, they even forget that like other fields of life, social media also has some rules and regulations to be followed and observed by the users. Particularly in countries like Pakistan, things need a very careful review regarding the use of social media. The point to be remembered is that the freedom of expression doesn’t mean a license to kill everyone with your words and to demolish rather shatter the whole social structure ruthlessly.
—The writer is Principal of a Government College and senior columnist, based in Multan.
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