The verdict is out. Social media is the stealthiest thief of time of this millennium. And the way it beguiles you to part with your precious waking hours, is probably the biggest daylight robberies of our times.
With eyes languidly transfixed on screens of computers and now increasingly smartphones, we keep scrolling up and down for something ‘interesting’ on social media platforms.
This happens immediately after waking up, while having breakfast, waiting for cab (if driving self when stuck in traffic jams or while waiting at traffic signals).
At office it hinges primarily on two factors - How strict your boss is? And how nosey your systems administrator? While at home it is the threshold of patience of your spouse and family members that matters. How much can they take it, as you remain glued to the screens quite unmindful of pending grocery purchase list, utility bills and the ticking time bomb on the domestic affairs front.
Eyes remain hooked to the screen to check who is ‘online’ with green spots next to their names. Messages are sent followed by a delivery tick mark. The wait for the ‘seen’ blue tick begins.
Once that happens, the wait for reply gets underway. Nerves are atingle once the three dots of typing awareness indicator starts dancing in a wavy motion on the screen. It is often followed by a reply, but sometimes the three dots keep dancing in what seems like eternity, with respondent either typing a long message or typing and ‘backspacing’ repeatedly.
The motivation to remain hooked on to screens is as myriad as human emotions, especially those related to the seven deadly sins. How many ‘likes’ or comments my latest selfie pout or hair cut has elicited. It has been nearly two hours since I uploaded that photo of me in that new dress, why no comment from my BFF yet? I put that photo of mine at Pattaya beach and guess what? 250 likes in half an hour!
At a more impersonal level the much polarized political atmosphere provides enough fodder to remain glued to the smartphone screens.
Rahul Gandhi, secularism, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, JNU, Arvind Kejriwal, Kashmir, job reservation and above all Jawaharlal Nehru are some of the keywords that provide more than enough grist to troll crowd. Trolling ranges from downright abuse in unprintable words to rape or murder threats. A common thread running among all trolls is a deeply ingrained misogyny. Film actresses and women journalists with anti-establishment views are a fair game.
Another toxic misuse of social media is peddling of fake news, often described in polite terms as alternate facts. It started off as a mischievous phenomenon often to push forth or reinforce one’s own prejudice or to cast aspersions on rivals. Often beginning with a disclaimer ‘forwarded as received’ it used to end with a punch line ‘if you agree then please share’.
Some of the recent success stories of fake news gone viral in India include the one regarding the presence of a micro-chip in Rs 2,000 note, Mark Tully praising Narendra Modi and of course a wide phalanx of news to pillory Jawaharlal Nehru – accusing him of being a drunkard, womaniser and blaming him for almost every ill plaguing the country.
But now fake news is no longer an innocuous prank. It has mutated into a scourge and is even causing loss of lives. The current WhatsApp fuelled rumours regarding child lifters is a case in point. Dozens of people have been murdered across the country based on description and photos of ‘child lifters’ circulated on WhatsApp.
Media pundits often used to say that mass media promotes narcotising dysfunction among its readers and viewers. In simple terms people are so badly inundated with news and views on a particular issue that they become apathetic to it.
But present day social media is turning this premise on its head. It is often whipping up frenzy among a section of people to mobilize an ill-informed mob to carry out murderous assaults.
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