“Social media has infected the world with a sickening
virus called vanity”.
-Kellie Elmore
Gone are the days when a postal letter or telegram from
close relatives and friends would make a person ecstatic. Gone are the days
when during important occasions and festivals there would be a get together and quality time spent with family. Now all this has become history. Social media has reduced the essence of family culture. Just one message in
Watsapp or Facebook has become enough to convey important messages irrespective
of whether the person gets the message or not.
Gone are the days when we used to be dependent on the
television and newspaper to gain knowledge and get updated about the outside
world. Now we get timely updates in our mobile phones from the various android
or windows or IOS applications. Gone are the days when we students used to be
dependent on text books for preparing for exams. Most of us now get photocopies of
notes in Watsapp or we can just download the text book from Google. It is
easily accessible and cost effective. We students are neither dependent on
teachers to clarify our doubts. We can just get the relevant information using
various search engines. Gone are the
days when VCR’s (videocassette reader) and gramophones were the only source for
watching a movie or listening to music. Well I don’t even buy CD’s now, as
there is Torrentz to download movies, serials, games, songs, story books, text
books and what not. Gone are the days when we used to get lost finding places
we have never been to. Google Maps is the solution for this now. It even says where
you have to take a right or left turn, which buses go to that particular destination
and cautions us when we are going in the wrong direction. Gone are the days when
parents sent their children outdoors to make friends and play with their
peers. Well now friends are made easily on Facebook and Twitter. In fact now
you can even judge a person by his Facebook profile or the number of likes he/she gets for his profile picture or the number of friends she/he has. As far as games are concerned
we have temple run, candy crush saga, angry birds and many more. Now even
these games are outdated, as there are new games invented every day. Right from a two-year-old to a sixty- year-old play
these games.
I can go on and on about how social media has had an
influence on our life style. As the saying goes “There are two sides to every
coin”. Social media has its own positives and negatives. It depends on the
individual whether to extract the positive resources from the Internet or
become its victim. Lately there is a rise in Cyber Crimes. Social media has
become a platform for harassment, financial theft, drug trafficking, racism and
obscene or offensive comments. Mostly women are falling as prey to these
crimes. At present, the number of cyber crimes
in India is nearly around 149,254 and is likely to cross the 300,000 by 2015
growing at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 107 percent. According
to the study, every month sees 12,456 cases registered in India. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have occupied the
top three positions when it comes to cyber crimes registered under the new IT
Act in India. Since we are trending towards a society where Internet is
believed more than humans, we have to protect ourselves from its hazards. We have
to keep our family culture alive rather than being too dependent on technology. We have to adapt ourselves to the ever changing technology but not loose our morale for it. Well, Welcome to the ‘Social Media Age’.
- Maheshwari M
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