Social Monster

Social Media has become an integral part of our lives today. Facebook, Google+, Twitter have now become our primary source of news and current affairs rather than the traditional printed newspapers or news websites. Social media has also become an important medium to create awareness about the important things- social injustice, political atrocities, corruption and not so important things- parties, music concerts, upcoming movies etc. The power of social media was most notably on display during the Arab Spring crisis, India against Corruption movement to name a few.

On one hand social media has become the tool that can bring the powers that be- down on their knees and on the other hand, social media is also filled with people who are using it to propagate their own hidden agendas. There are pages on Facebook that incite hatred- against Muslims, against Christians, against Hindus- religion doesn't matter. The hate mongers are very secular and can be found in all shapes, sizes, country and religion. There are people- "Trolls" as they are usually referred to on Social media- who spend their days baiting people online by posting derogatory comments, bullying people online and going so far as to deface memorial pages created for people who are no longer with us.

I recently came across a campaign that has been initiated against Facebook to remove pages that encourage violence against women. APPARENTLY it's funny to kick your girlfriend in the uterus if she won't make you a sandwich. Vile content such as this on Facebook, inciting rape and violence against women, has sparked a growing social media campaign aimed at forcing the site to take a stronger stance against gender-based hate speech. I also don't particularly find the idea of kicking a man in the nuts (another FB page) particularly funny. The photos on some of these pages are just disturbing- women who have been badly beaten and bruised. There are morons out there who like these photos and I am not talking about a 100 likes. I am talking 100K likes. The comments are absolutely appalling and disturbing.

Social media is a powerful tool- but when in the hands of tools, it can just easily become a deadly weapon. There have been countless cases of Facebook bullying reported all over the world where the victims have been so distraught that they have committed or tried to commit suicide. Most of these people are in their teens- out having a good time and then the next day- their embarrassing photos and videos are splashed all over the internet. We all have been drunk or stupid or both in our lifetime but does that mean we are fair game for bullying on the internet? Mobile phone operators have made it easy for people to be on the internet all the time. The concepts of privacy, personal space, basic respect for people and beliefs has gotten lost in our desperate need to be the coolest, most connected person. More and more teenagers are growing up to be insecure and sociopathic- more prone to predators lurking in the anonymous, shadowy world of the internet. We were all warned of the "Stranger Danger" when we were little. But the internet has made the people who are known to us more dangerous than the strangers.

We can all do our little bit to stop the rot- stop liking and re-tweeting anything that incites hatred, is misogynistic or misandryistic. Really it is that simple.