An overactive social network

The heinous crimes that took place in Delhi have impacted the nation, our consciousness and have overflowed on to various social media platforms and communities. Reactions to fool hardy messages are understandable; however it’s time we think before we tweet or post them in this glocial [globally social] world, so that we do not lose sight of the main issue and give unasked for PR mileage to upstarts in our effort to slam them.

Ever since that unfortunate incident shocked the country, media and social media is back in form and action. Everyday I see tons of posts and messages directly or indirectly related to the event. But with days passing by, the social focus is shifting away from the dreadful event to either curbing such acts for good, or sharing of photos of a girl as the victim or even to who said whats. Are we using the social media rightly or are we just aiding the cheap publicity?

I will start with few recent examples to explain this in detail.

Several politicians and their likes including Babas, Sadhus, yogis, etc., are making their unasked-for opinions about the event, their thoughts on victims and perpetrators, known to the public.

These are being published in news, on websites, FB posts and messages as well as on twitter.

The question now is, what do we remember? In most cases, we remember only the name of the person who said it, than what he or she said. This is a great PR brownie for that individual. Maybe, not everyone is doing this cheap stunt intentionally, but is that not the outcome?

Can you tell me 5 things that were said last week? Or can you name 5 people who said something worthwhile? Our ire is understandable but what message are we delivering… and who is getting the benefit here?

Reaction is another of our classical traits. We want to react and express ourselves and social media gives us that platform. But then what are we discussing on such forums? We learnt in school as young kids to ignore those saying wrong things so not encourage them and their ideas; but forums like these and non-stop social platforms are spreading the comments and their authors to a great extent, especially when we post our reaction to many such unpleasant statements.

I am intentionally not quoting any examples. Look at your social media page, and judge the messages yourself.

In this very well connected globally social world, it is high time we thought for a moment before we shared a particular post or posted something ourselves, because what will be remembered is not, “Such a stupid statement”, but the Name that appears on the page that opens after you click to read it.