By H H Mohrmen
The internet which was initially called information super highway was later called cyber space or virtual world as the system evolved. This, as if the internet is another ether world that existed where humans choose to enter and exit at their whims and fancy. When the internet was first used, it was for sending mails via emails from one place to another but today one can do almost everything through the internet. The internet has, in fact, become part of everyday life of a person so much so, even babies have started using YouTube at the young age of three or four years old.
Social media a new reality
Perhaps this small story will help the reader understand how social media which operates via internet changes our perception. In a chance meeting with a gentleman from Jowai, I introduced him to my two daughters as a photographer who is very popular in the different social media platforms. He tried to interrupt me but then realized otherwise and allowed me to continue introducing him as a photographer. I immediately understood what he was trying to say and corrected myself by re-introducing him as a retired engineer who passed his matriculation in the first ten position. He went on to study engineering and passed with flying colours winning a gold medal from the university he graduated from. Social media sometimes changes our perceptions about the person and things that we see or interact with. For instance, for those who only know ma Leeno Shilla from his later avatar as a photographer par excellence, from the beautiful photographs that he shares on different social media platforms, tend to miss the real person.
Social media users tend to think that what they see on the internet is gospel truth and do not question even the source of the story or the information that is shared. The other dangerous trend in the medium is that people re-share the video or the article without verifying the source of the information. This is a very dangerous trend and sometimes users fall into traps laid by anti-social elements who are on the prowl in the internet too.
Internet a useful tool
Social media has influenced not only what people think but how they behave too. In a way social media has also influenced how people react to issues they see unfolding in their everyday lives right in front of their eyes. In a seminar on waste organized by a college in Jowai, almost all papers presenters used information shared on the internet to justify their points. News items or information which appear on news portals and even videos related to the subject available on the internet become part of their presentations. It is true a lot of us do our preliminary research on the internet and there is no denying the fact that it is very helpful. The internet not only benefits the educated section of the population but it has also helped people in the rural areas too.
There is a JCB driver from a village near Jowai who later on upgraded himself and now drives a chain excavator. On being asked how and where he learnt to drive and use a chain excavator, he replied very promptly ‘YouTube Ma.’ In fact he can’t even pronounce YouTube properly. The point is how a person uses the internet.
Data from the internet
One would think what data can the social media companies collect about the user when one has not shared anything on the platform except one’s identity. But is that really true? On second thoughts one realizes that unintentionally users provide a whole lot of information about themselves to the different companies operating on the internet. Once a friend pointed out that if one buys a pair of shoes online, the customer has to share one’s shoe size with them and the company not only sells the shoes but it also collects the information and stores t in its system. Similarly, when the users scroll through the pages of the different online shopping portals, they inadvertently disclose to the machine’s artificial intelligence one’s favourite colour, one’s clothes size and one’s fashion tastes too.
When readers read or watch on the internet the information is also stored and the companies use algorithms to analyses the users’ interest and ensure that he or she only receives articles or videos that they are interested in. The trick is to read randomly not to give too much information to the machines to be able to know what the user’s interest is.
Social media a new data source
Internet and social media in particular can be a major source of information. Hearts and other emojis or smileys are not just something that people click randomly. People are beginning to interpret and analyse them. Views, emojis and the likes or dislikes are opinions or feelings that people have on an issue or on incidents shared on social media platforms. It is also very natural for a person to be happy when he/she has lots of positive comments on his/her post or the links that the person shares. The emojis, smileys status uploads and likes becomes a new indicator for a person to study the general public’s attitude towards issues or incidents. People are also counting the number of views of their videos and posts and every one’s wish is for the most popular term that the video goes ‘viral.’
The internet especially social media platforms have become a major source for data collection during the elections. This is obvious from the fact that even candidates who have never been active on the internet have all of a sudden started a Facebook/Instagram page or Twitter account of their own. Of course, there are candidates who do not have the time or maybe they are not familiar with the technology, but they have their own social media handlers.
Negative impact of social media posts
The murder of two precious lives (the former rather in the most bizarre way) just because they liked or showed support to certain issues or posts is an example of the worst impact that social media can have on people. This is one of the emerging ugly side of social media where differences of opinions shared on social media platforms can even lead to the murder of an innocent person. Of course, like any other platforms or mediums of communication there are always two sides to the same coin but one would not expect that what one shares on the virtual world would be taken with a pinch of salt.
Face time on smart phones
Using internet has become a habit which has adverse impacts on the life of the users. How much time does a person spend on social media is a big question now. It is also true that an ordinary smart phone user would spend at least one hour a day on the internet. In a recent interview Martin Cooper the founder of a mobile phone which has evolved to a smart phone that we use now, has a very strong message for smart phone users who over-use the device. Persons who use smart phones more than five hours a day need to have a life Martin Cooper said. The simple advice from this message is everything in moderation is fine.
The medium of the future
The internet and the different sites and platforms in the system are going to be part and parcel of our lives. In a café in Jowai recently, a mother who went to dine with her daughter when the young lady paid the bill using Google pay, said to me, ‘See now they don’t have to pay cash anymore.’ The point is it obvious that the line that divides the virtual and the real world is no longer distinct now. Majority of the population now cannot live without the internet. It has become a necessity for a person to have a smart phone with internet connection. Internet can no longer be called virtual world but a real world as the line that divides the two is blurred.