Has social media made people forget how to respect ?

This question has been in my mind for quite some time now. Hence, I wanted to talk a little about it; at least what I think about it.

Social media has been a great tool for all human since the day of its birth. It has been growing and growing, getting better and better at helping us at every aspect of our lives. Be it in the field of communication; or in the field of education. From children to adults and even to the old, social media has been a constant help, and even brought happiness up to a certain extent, which otherwise some would have been deprived of. But the question exists among many that, has social media brought negative influences too in the society? The answer to that is obviously ‘Yes’, and everyone probably knows that. Of-course everything in this universe has a good and a bad side to it. Same goes for technology and social media in this case.

Today, I won’t talk about all the bad influences, since that would be rude of me. But a particular problem that I think has spread across social media. With the growth of social media, I think a lot of people have lost the sense of human manners and morality. I’ve realised the moral gap that people should maintain in the society has also drastically decreased. I’ll take some examples to explain this. First let me take the example of Mahatma Gandhi. Everyone knows him as the Father of our nation. He was entitled with this for a reason, and I firmly believe in that reason. There might have been some political agendas behind his history too, I can’t say no about them. What I have seen is many Gandhi haters started to dig into his past and bring out some things about him like he was a womanizer. This is just one of such things. Now, this may be true. But, does it really matter to us? What good will it bring? Will it change the nation to something so good? I’m sure it won’t. It would have I guess, even if he was alive(laughs). Instead why don’t we accept the good that man had done. What surprises me is that people seem to be more interested in the negative conspiracies.

Let me give you another example. This has mostly to do with the celebrity people, or in other words, anyone who has achieved some fame. In this age of social media, the world has become so small that you can even talk to these ‘celebrity’ people easily, which otherwise was not possible before. Yes, this has been helpful in many cases. But if you will notice, just as people praise them, there has been increase in the number of people insulting and humiliating them publicly (meaning in social media, since everyone sees it). It has become so much easier now. Yes, we have the right to criticize them. You can even make fun of some sometime. But I believe this should not be done in these public platforms. Discuss it among your friends privately, or in your Whats app groups.

Show them some respect, or even if not, respect their art/work. You cannot imagine how much hard work it takes to get to that place. They are human first.

You never know what consequences can those insults bring.

These are just mere examples of how narrow the world has become in the age of social media. Like my math teacher once said to us, “Do not respect the other if you don’t feel like. But please do not disrespect him/her”. Lastly, I would say, we need not treat someone as god always, but as human we must learn the simplest morality that is within each and everyone of us, to treat everyone with love.

#socialmedia

Author Pritom Gohain Baruah