India is a young nation. The demography of its population is such that youth (18-35yrs) accounts for the 40%, which is a huge number. In addition, even more important is22% of its population comprises of preteens or teens (10-18), which brings the median age of this nation to 25.1 years. The world is seeing the advent of technology where a turn up of each New Year is equivalent to a decade. This new and upcoming generation could be termed as the Tech Savvy who aspires for the best and latest thing the tech grid has to offer. This new breed has a hunger for the data, any data irrespective of the nature turning them into one of its kind in the goose chase. In the midst of all these the most growing and popular among the tech-savvy generation is social media, which has given the voice to even the introverts of the society. It has created a virtual world for them. People want to express their opinion at everything that is happening around them. This social media has brought the world a click away from the user. The person sitting in front of a monitor in one corner of the world condemns an attack in the other part. These information mongers monitor every minute detail. The upheaval of governments in Egypt, the formation and support for AAP is a result of such social media outrage. Social media had all the details of Anna and his comrades like who are they and what they stand for. The movement that started in Delhi got support from every corner of the nation being it metropolitans or towns, and this support owes itself to these various social platforms. Moreover, the best example is 2014 General elections in the nation where the same social media generated a slogan �Abki Baar Modi Sarkar�, which resulted in a shocking outcome as the 10-year rule of Congress came to a halt. This was not only the case with politics even in social issues; people have come upfront on various platforms to voice their opinion. Whether it is a rape case, women empowerment, farmer suicides, section 377 or government swindles, the people have come to the fore to express themselves. These platforms are turning out to be the new kingmakers. PR agencies are using them to their best interest.
As the saying goes, every coin has two sides; there are even cons to these social media platform. There is no authentication of the information provided and the users on this un-authenticated info are rather carried away in giving a verdict than making an opinion. There have been incidents when people with not so good intention used it for their mean purposes. Putting a post to hurt somebody�s sentiment or provoking them against another community just to create a nuisance are just mere examples. Sometimes even a single post of its kind might result into havoc. So whether its politician making provocative racists speeches or mudslinging on their rivals or creation of sentimental vibes for the culprit or the vice versa, the data is placed on such platforms without any integrity.
I understand that everyone has the right to speech or can have their say or opinion, but then there should be a check for restricting radical persons for using these platforms for their mean goals. A country like India where people are too sensitive about their caste creed and religion it is easy to put something on to create tension between two communities. People using such platforms have to be sensible enough whether to discard information or not. So on the long run moderation of these platforms has to be the main concern. Do it either by having a moderator or by asking the platform owners as in the case of China. Moderation of social media might be an uphill task, but then that is the need of the hour to maintain the diversity of this nation.
Praveen Joshi
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