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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

When social media controls you!

Published : Friday, 25 October, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 630
Shahriar Feroze

More than enough has been penned, discussed and conversed about the gruesome Bhola incident. Reflecting back far earlier, it is not the first time that religious zealots have claimed lives based on unverified social media posts in the country. In fact, social media posts had fomented a full-fledged revolution in the Arab world way back in 2011 - when Facebook had played a significant role facilitating communication and interaction among participants of political protests. Back then, it had massively shaped political debates resulting in unified actions, exclusively within the Arab countries which had a higher percentage of internet usage. The point, however, Facebook posts and contents penned in individual blogs have resulted in numerable killings and purges in Bangladesh and it is least likely to stop anytime soon, since we as a people have not learnt what to believe, who to believe and how to react.

On the whole, as much as the social media is a lethal destructive weapon, it is also a substantial beneficial tool for uniting a society to achieve a greater common good. To make my point even easier, let us assume that there is a gun available to everyone for killing deadly beasts, now if that gun is deliberately abused to kill fellow humans then it becomes mandatory to regulate the usage of the weapon as per an ethical guideline. Also the user must come to know on its limitations.
That said - the perilous impacts of social media abuse coupled with radical response mechanisms in our country have reached such horrific height that depending on our mainstream media news reports appears to be somewhat lost in trance.

May sound bizarre, but the truth is many millions have become spellbound to social media while shaping their personal opinions on individuals, society and politics, namely from the Facebook. Facebook is in its place and there is practically no need to regulate it by banning its operations - either in Bangladesh or in any other country. Several attempts were taken here earlier to regulate and even prohibit social media temporarily but all attempts went in vain.

More than any time before, it is time we the Facebook users in this country learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the social media. In an age when images, voices, posts can be artificially engineered to trigger sinister communal violence, lot needs to be done. Facebook had become the primary target of extremist groups to ignite friction and hatred nearly a decade ago, now is the time to free it from their clutches. We must collectively learn how to control the social media before it controls us.

In the Bhola incident for instance, the man whose account was hacked reportedly had no clue what was going on. When the offensive messages were made public, local people along with his Facebook contacts should have verified the authenticity of his posts, instead of bursting out in fury.

In all its practicalities, most people today are consuming news mostly through social media in the place of old school traditional news channels; this is where the errors erupt in massive blunders. Remember, from a technical perspective, the information you obtain via the social media are nothing more than projection of preferences and actions of the people you follow. Most social networks consist of a number of micro-networks of followers and friends. This very structure creates boundaries and limitations for distribution of information. Furthermore, most of the time social media information is circulated without mentioning its source of origin and verified authenticity.

In recent years, Facebook in our country has been modified to an ideal social platform for gossip mongers, name-droppers, selfie - addicts, upstarts and braggarts.

All major social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) have already switched to non-time based feeds - they have been reported to solve this problem with an algorithmic approach. But even the most advanced algorithms created by thousands of brilliant engineers can't compete with the very basic attributes of human brain.

The message - if you are devoid of brain and do not know how to distinct truth from false, if you are confused about which posts and comments to trust or dump , you should never open a Facebook account like my girl friend. She has no knowledge about the social media; she is not interested to post her selfies with notable celebrities, and most importantly she never allows anyone to take photos of her sumptuous dishes. Her life is simple, full of joy complemented with modern day ignorance. Moreover, she doesn't need to download the innumerable mobile apps since she doesn't have one. She is contented with her good old landline.

Remember, social media is a bliss coupled with its flaws and limitations. Do not get obsessed with it. Those who are obsessed or heavily depended on Facebook posts have successfully transformed into the virtual world.

Consider it a double-edged sword. At its best, social media offers unprecedented opportunities for marginalized people to voice and draw much needed attention for free. At its worst, it offers everyone an unprecedented opportunity to share in collective outrage without reflection.

Whatever, there is no point becoming a victim of this double-edged sword. Strike your blows sensibly.

The writer is assistant editor,
The Daily Observer




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