Social media and our behaviour
For some, social media is a blessing and for few it is a tool for chaos. No one can deny the fact that social media is a game changer of 21st century.
Today, life without social media is almost impossible. Audience who is intellectual and has the capacity to absorb the concept never gets disturbed by social media huge content of information.
One cannot affect rational mind set easily by using social media tools for misinformation. It is an age of information and you get it by just clicking one button. No one can sideline the importance of social media on this planet.
Basically, social media purpose is to communicate ideas and information by using different tools available like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Social media has its own merits and demerits. There are about millions of people who are using social media platforms.
If we look into the merits, first thing that comes to mind is the freedom. It gives us freedom to express our opinion and ideas to world.
Social media platforms are best way to connect people in entire world. It also brought families closer.
Now, one can connect with its own family and friends day and night by sitting in some other country or city.
Online education is one of the best things happened to this world with the help of social media tools.
In developing countries, internet it the best tool to provide education to many and it is bringing prosperity to lives.
It is great opportunity for any business and marketing companies to reach millions of people and target their audience more efficiently and effectively in limited time.
It saves a lot of time and money and you get better results. In demerits, first of all is the fake news and propaganda.
One can spew hatred against any individual or celebrity or any country. Fakes news can spread like wildfire via social media platforms.
It can easily damage the reputation of a firm or any individual. Often criminals use these platforms to blackmail people, especially women.
Cyber bullying and hacking have caused a lot of harm to the society. Social media apps are being used widely to brain wash people, for example, many politicians are doing this practice for their election campaign and to malign opponents.
In this era of social Media, Governments usually formed as well as toppled with the power of social media.
People in this world always have difference of opinion. These differences often lead to hatred and destruction. Emotions play vital role in this game.
Tolerance level of users is mostly on the lower side and they don’t like those who disagree with them.
Youth on social media platforms are mostly full of extreme emotions and not willing to accept any difference of opinion.
A study conducted by Dr.Michael Workman, associate professor of technology management, found that “social media can affect bias.
” “We found that when people are seeking new information about a topic, that social media can change people’s minds,” Workman said.
Most of social media applications are influential tools of Fifth Generation Warfare. Aim is to divide and split the society and country into pieces.
Such pages and accounts deal audience very tactfully, they either create confusion in people minds or attract them to their agenda.
Mostly, social media tools are used to drive radicalization and violence through disinformation campaigns.
To create anarchy, Social media tools have been used to suppress internal dissent, meddle in democratic elections and incite armed violence.
It is very unfortunate fact that apart from targeting political debates, personal life and religious beliefs are criticized on social media also.
Many pages have been created deliberately on social media to target the certain community or minority groups.
Sentiments of people often get hurt by this and it creates polarization and chaos in the society.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
