Reconstructing history
Editor,
This refers to the article, “Forgetting our history” (ST, November 21, 2023) by Lekha Rattanani. The outgoing Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati, Bidyut Chakraborty had created three major controversies during his tenure. The first one was his alleged involvement in creating walls, fences and divisions in Vishva Bharati to uphold the vision of Tagore. Tagore created Vishva Bharati as a residential place of learning, “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments/ By narrow domestic walls.”
The second attempt was to undermine another landmark of Santiniketan, Pratichi by raising deafening noise over a small piece of land within it. Pratichi is another place of pilgrimage in Santiniketan because it is Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s ancestral home where he had been with his family for eight decades. The third one was keeping the founder of Visva Bharati, Noble laureate Tagore’s name out of the plaque which was installed in the University to commemorate the listing of Santiniketan as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Similar controversy has also been plagued in Sabarmati. Mahatma Gandhi’s motto was simplicity. But the Gujarat government’s Rs 1200 crore makeover of Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial is totally opposed to his ideals.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Toxicity of social media
Editor,
Newton’s third law says, “To every action there is an equally opposite reaction.” The same is happening with social media too. While social media has its uses its harmful effects have also started showing and affecting mental health.
During the last one decade social media has become an essential part of our lives. In fact, how much social media we use is a strong reason for rising health problems. The situation seems serious as we notice young people spending more than 5-6 hours every day on different social media platforms. In India the number of social media users is very high. Unless we exercise self discipline social media can become destructive.
Social media has reduced conversation time even among family members. Parents have no control over their children on this matter. The continuous and consistent association with digital content has started demonstrating weak mental health in young people. And while social media has brought the promising role of connecting people online it has also come as a challenge as they feel the need to be constantly connected. This is also the reason for conflict in the minds of youth who are using social media solely for receiving reactions to their activities posted on the platforms. The youth need to know that those with a lot of friends on social media are not necessarily happy, famous or successful. Moreover young people are investing ’emotions’ in social media platforms. This ’emotional investment’ is a clear indication of mental health problems.
Continuous online activities are pushing the youth into depression that later even take the shape of suicidal and criminal tendencies. Do parents notice when a child stays up late each night and is not getting enough sleep? This follows irritability in the child’s behaviour which is a reflection of growing mental health problems.
The entire generation of young people has entered a complex juncture where they start hating others who stop them from getting involved on social media platforms. A simple example to judge the harmful effects of these online platforms comes when you examine the reaction of young people who are asked to stay away from any platform for some days. A strong pushback comes in these situations, which reflects the ‘social media addiction.’ Parents should monitor their child’s behaviour while they are away from such platforms. Moreover, sleep disruption caused during the night and before bedtime by mobile devices can also be the reason impacting the child.
Due to lack of consensus on such topics, it isn’t easy to make specific recommendations to youth. Still, we should remind young people that their ‘virtual friends’ are keeping them away from enjoying life with real friends and maintaining healthy relationships. Strong comparisons should be made to advise and involve youth in other activities so that they take more breaks and keep their focus away from digital content. It is because of loneliness that everyone feels connected online. Practically speaking, all such platforms are created for commercial reasons (showing advertisements and collecting data about users).
Social media has now plagued people across ages.YouTubers, in particular, have been swaying the masses with their out of the box ideas and presentations. A recent report says there are 467 (four hundred sixty seven) million social media users in the country today, which equates to 32.8% of the 1.6 billion active mobile phones in India where 77 % mobile penetration has already been achieved as of today.
Currently there are 2 million YouTubers partner programme creator base spawning over 40,000 channels with more than one lakh followers per channel. Undoubtedly, social media is today turning out to be an unavoidable passion. However, using social media is not always pernicious. Of late, it has transformed non-entities into celebrities and ordinary folks into high octane cult figures. Students preparing for multiple competitive examinations take the help of social media and other education channels to sharpen up their skills.
The pharmaceutical industry has turned the whole media industry into a money- making machine. People across the world have hugely benefited following the exchange of medical knowledge and expert consultations. Surgeries are being performed in on-line mode and a patient now has the luxury of consulting a doctor of his choice from any corner of the world. The business community is enjoying the fruits of the digital revolution that has indirectly exposed them to the brighter side of social media. There is not a single commercial entity that has been left untouched by its gigantic presence as a result of which maximum business establishments have reconciled to the idea of using this media for widening the scope of their businesses.
Unemployed youth, well versed in graphics, digital exposition and computer based languages are pooling in all their resources to exploit the opportunities to earn a decent living. However, despite all the positives, social media is fraught with some lurking dangers. Surveys across the board have found that 36.9% social media users have common health related problems. These have been identified as eye strain (36.4%), anger (25.5%) and sleep disorder (26.1%).
Some irresponsible and unsubstantiated media posts have recently triggered massive clashes between communities. Videos blackmailing victims for money and sex are being unabashedly uploaded day in and day out. Chats laced with expletives, invectives and insinuations make it to different media platforms freely. All this is the consequence of toxic addiction.
Society and parents have a pivotal role to play to curb this menace and if they shy away from taking up this responsibility then the whole society could be at the risk of disintegration
Proper counselling, regular consultations and meaningful engagements can reverse the trend to a great extent. Misuse of social media has to be immediately checked and all the remedial measures in the context of this gross abuse have to be put in place.
Let social media be a source of joy, earning and knowledge without it turning into an addiction. It is the collective responsibility of all concerned to ensure that social media is used the way it is meant to. Anything contrary to this could be cramping and catastrophic.
Though technology has many uses it also has its downside. Recently the world has seen how technology failed Israel on the very first day of war with Hamas. It’s a big lesson for all that technology has its own limitations.
Yours etc.,
Yash Pal Ralhan,
Via email