SOCIAL MEDIA: Useful or Useless

1. What is social media?

• It is a term used for a group of internet based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.
• It provides an excellent platform to discuss issues. share and even create information.
• This information can be in the form of text, image, audio and video.
• Various websites used for this purpose are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, etc. (Look at the picture above)

2. How has this social media impacted the lives of people?

• It has affected the lives of youngsters more than anyone else.
• Today, youngsters are leading two lives. One real and the other virtual.
• Unable to make a proper balance between the two, youngsters are alienating the people surrounding them in real life.
• They are affected by the negative feelings of envy and jealousy by comparing themselves with their friends who upload their pictures of party and enjoyment. For e.g. my previous flatmate who was preparing for civil services used to frequently lose his motivation by looking at the pictures of his college mates partying in USA.
• It also creates disturbance for them in studies due to lack of concentration.
• Various health issues such as lethargy, sleep deprivation and strain on eyes are common these days. Many students can be found online at 1 a.m.in the night when they have board exam in the morning tomorrow.
• Also, the language skills of youngster are going down . 
• Other negative impacts of social media are: MMS, videos and pictures can be misused, cyber bullying leading to suicides, anonymity leading to criminal tendencies, no privacy of data, cyber attacks and malwares are on rise. 

3. What is its larger impact on democracy and politics?

• As anybody and everybody can create information, it has led to democratization of information and has preserved the ideal of free speech.
• In this way it provides voice to the voiceless or the powerless people. 
• It provides new ways of channelizing public opinion and encouraging participation in political and civic activities. Various examples are Arab spring, Anna Hazare movement, Delhi gang rape case and online petitions.  
• People can critically monitor the actions of government and demand accountability from the bureaucrats.
• Today, many political parties maintain an updated website and political leaders are active on social media. Thus, it is being used as an effective tool for political communication. 
• By making voting online will lead to increase in political participation of these netizens.
• Tolerance for cultural diversity is growing. Various identities such as tribals, regional and national are existing alongside. Thus, there is development of  horizontal ties among people rather than vertical and hierarchical ties.
• Businesses are reaching directly to the people. Two way communication between the customers and  the businessmen is possible leading to feedback and improvement in service delivery.
• In education, various online open course are widening the horizons of learning. The learning experiences have widened by using animation, interactive story and cartoons.

4. How has this social media impacted the functioning of mainstream media?

• It has challenged the monopoly of newspapers and TV channels in providing news to the people.
• It has challenged the credibility of mainstream media.Now, the mainstream media can't hide news otherwise social media will report it. For e.g. Mainstream media didn't report much on Assam riots but social media did report.
• Today, newspapers and channels have their special reporters who monitor Facebook and twitter for the breaking news.  
• Actually both of these are complementary. For transnational coverage of domestic affairs we need social media and for nationwide coverage of any event on social media we need mainstream media.

5. What are the limitations of social media?

• There is a large digital divide i.e. only 15% of people have internet connection. 
• Also there is rural urban divide among the people.
• It is restricted to only English speaking classes and it may hinder the growth of social media in future.

6. Should social media be regulated?

• In social media there is unchecked sharing of information. There is no authenticity of information and the information can harm or hurt any group or person. For e.g. North east people fled to Assam when a rumor was spread on social media that Muslim fundamentalists can retaliate after Assam riots.
• As the potential to harm is much more than expected , we need some form of regulation. 
• Government must build its capacity to block the potential websites and webpages which can create disturbances.
• Government must use social media itself to give more information to counter the misinformation.

7. Do you think section 66(A) of IT Act has been unfair towards freedom of expression through social media?

• This act says that any person who send by computer any information that is grossly offensive or have menacing character will be punished. For e.g. circulating the objectionable pics without permission can come under this provision.
• If the person knows that the information is false and is spread for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, injury, hatred, ill will or insult will also come under this act. For e.g. spreading of video during Muzaffarnagar riots can come under this provision.
• Also, if an e-mail is send for causing inconvenience, annoyance, deceive or misled will be covered under this section. Therefore, if you get the e-mails saying that you have won 1 crore as a lucky draw or King of Samoa is keeping his money in your custody then these can be booked under this section.
• Various unreasonable applications of this act which were in news are: Jadavpur university professor was booked for a political cartoon about Didi, a businessman made a defamatory tweet against the son of Chidambaram, Aseem Trivedi for drawing cartoons of parliament to depict its ineffectiveness. Two girls were booked for questioning the shutdown of Mumbai on the demise of Bal Thackrey. 
• One common thing in all these cases is that the affected party was having a lot of influence in politics. Power was applied while slapping the charges and not mind. India is a diverse society where people can have different and conflicting views. To scare everybody by the unreasonable application of law defeats the purpose of law itself. It also undermines the democracy. Before applying the charges, the police must look into the intentions of the person. Also, they must look into the larger impacts of their act on free speech, critical thinking among the masses and the sensitivity of the people. How can they punish a cartoon which makes a point against the current state of affairs. Without critical thinking democracy won't survive. If these people have guts then reply in the same peaceful way. If Trivedi made some cartoon of parliament then it is the politicians who are responsible for this. they must go and run the parliament first.  
• After many debates and discussion this section of the act has been amended and before applying the charges under this act, permission needs to be taken from an officer not below the rank of DCP level in rural and urban areas and IGP in metros. I hope the misuse of act wil be reduced now.