Simultaneously growing closer and slipping away
Some people are of the opinion that social media is silently distorting the whole face of our society. They are correct – to some extent — but if I had a very fertile treasure of vocabulary, I would have used a term far more rigid than just ‘distorting’
With the advent of social-media, words have started changing their meanings.
For instance, gone are the days when the word ‘status’ had an altogether different meaning. I remember, in my school and college days my mother and father used to say that I would have to work hard if I wanted to enjoy a respectable ‘status’ in life. They would say that without labour and effort, one could never earn a valuable social or financial ‘status’ either in family or in the circle of friends. But today, this word (status), conveys an absolutely different meaning.
A friend of mine was complaining that in spite of his repeated requests, his son did not add him to his friends’ list on Facebook. The same was his complaint regarding his wife. He said his wife was rather more brutal in her behaviour; she not only deleted his friend request but also blocked him from seeing her activities on Facebook. My friend said his wife does nothing throughout the day but drag her fingers on her cell phone. Even when she is sleeping, she sets her status as: ‘Sleeping but not offline’.
I feel the pain and agony of my friend but I was helpless. Misuse of social media has however become one of the most serious problems in our social life today.
Some people are of the opinion that social media is silently distorting the whole face of our society. They are correct – to some extent — but if I had a very fertile treasure of vocabulary, I would have used a term far more rigid than just ‘distorting’.
You see, in every family, from father to the eldest son and from mother to the youngest daughter, everyone has built a wall around themselves with no doors, no windows, and the only means of approaching the person inside is social media. How strange is it that birthdays are being celebrated on Facebook and in WhatsApp groups and condolences are conveyed through ‘Messenger’?
People living within these self-created walled-cities pretend to cut-off all connection with the world, while informing the outside world about their activities
On one hand people living within these self-created walled-cities pretend to cut-off all connection with the world, while informing the outside world about their activities. One such ‘friend’ posted a picture in which he was walking along a road holding an empty can of petrol. The caption below was: “my car drank all petrol; me going to get more from the pump; getting late from my office.” I don’t know how that friend of mine managed to take a selfie in that painful situation. And more ridiculous was the fact that this picture got hundreds of ‘likes’ in response.
Bangladesh is the first country in South-Asian region to take the misuse of social media seriously and has planned to put a limited ban on Facebook. According to various Bangladeshi newspapers, the cabinet has sent a letter to the telecom ministry stating Facebook is “diminishing the working capabilities of youth” and “affecting the students”. God knows how the ministry would spare time to read this letter though, because it has preoccupations of its own. It recently introduced a video game called “Heroes of 1971: Retaliation”, with a simple objective: liberate East Pakistan and, in the process, kill as many Pakistani soldiers as possible. Reports say that this video game has reached peak popularity in Bangladesh. It’s very strange: on one hand the government of Bangladesh is worried about “diminishing working capabilities of youth”, but on the other hand it is fueling hatred among the same youth. In the long run such anti-Pakistan propaganda would do nothing but promote prejudice, narrow mindedness and brutality among the youth of Bangladesh – far more harmful and dangerous than “diminishing” their working capabilities.
