The present-day preoccupation with social media across the globe endorses their pivotal importance and relevance in human society. “social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.” (Wikipedia Web)

social media are omnipresent digital highways that are never without traffic, providing ever increasing bytes of information to users regardless of age, from very young children to senior citizens. The information social media appropriates and dispenses significantly impacts every aspect of human society and learning. I ask you to consider if we are abdicating every aspect of human and learning to social media? Are we mistaking its omnipresence for omniscience? Is human society making social media omnipotent by its constant demand and dependence? I argue we need to think deeply about social media and its impact on human society and learning in the digital era.

Social media platforms such as X (formerly) Twitter, Face book, Instagram and WhatsApp and You-tube have become critical and decisive societal institutions. Views, updates, conversations, and daily routines are posted by people at all levels of society, from the ordinary to the celebrity, and assimilated not only at face value, but often taken as the very gospel truth. This omnipotent, omnipresent and fast-paced source of information is mined on a daily basis for nuggets of gold, and everything else under the sun, aided by increasingly powerful search engines. The very nature of dissemination and accessibility of social media has democratized knowledge, news and information beyond the pre-digital era social media gated communities of the ‘educated’ or ‘privileged’. It has also become the focal point for any form of disaster management, and large-scale information dissemination in times of crisis and even as a tool that can be used against disinformation or for spreading useful and crucial information.

Beyond the aforementioned social conversations, social media has impacted the student community (and learners of all ages) in a significant manner with easy access to learning material from across the globe. They share the classroom lecture notes and recorded lectures through these platforms. Learning has become very handy for students in the era of digital times. Furthermore, they express their emotions, happiness and fests and celebrations are being shared and accessed. B. Tech students particularly in Engineering colleges are making use of it for their studies in a very constructive manner. Students belonging to rural areas also are able to learn with ease and felicity through these tools. Classroom lectures also are being browsed in Google to enhance understanding and make learning easier and very effective. Students of all classes, including those in second and third grades, use online dictionaries to acquire the correct pronunciation and its meaning. Students across disciplines today keep abreast of their knowledge about everything around them through social media. Students in the second decade of the 21st century are moving away from conventional learning methods, which often take time to help them fully assimilate concepts. It is widely believed that learning through social media is much faster and more productive than the traditional classroom. But, in my opinion, this is wide open to debate and penetration of digital media in rural areas.

Numerous research studies have emphasized that the 21st-century media is more complex than the traditional mode of learning. Modern social movements have greatly relied on print media writ large for documentation and publicity. In a pre-social media era, scholars examined the critical role that the “news” played in such displays, by documenting, sometimes legitimizing, and potentially galvanizing, social movements (Chomsky, 2002; Gitlin, 1980). People have increasingly moved away from print to digital media evinced by the larger digital footprint of newspapers, magazines, and eBooks. “Social media,” according to Dhiraj Murthy, “is mainly conceived of as a medium wherein ‘ordinary’ people in ordinary social networks (as opposed to professional journalists) can publish user-generated ‘news’/‘updates’ (in a broadly defined sense)” (Murthy, 2013, p. 8).

Recently, scholars and the common man have evinced serious reservations on the ostensible domination of social media and its thoughtless adoption versus the traditional ways of learning and communication, particularly in the digital era, and in every walk of life. In this context, it is relevant to recall Jonathan Swift’s The Battle of the Books that sparked heated discussions about classical and contemporary learning at Saint James’s Library in London. This book offers explicit discussions of the importance of ancient learning which paved the way for exploring realistic aspects of the world for readers and learners. However, while modern learning via digital social media might seem easy and simple, it is very often superficial, reduces the attention span of the learner, and provides shallow and instant gratification. In contrast, learning not based on social media digital resources leaves a lasting, profound impact on students. Great writers like Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richards, Jonathan Swift also became iconic neoclassical writers by reading classical literature deeply. In a similar vein, social media provides easy access to knowledge for a short period of time, but conventional learning provides a stronger foundation for exploring the world in a meaningful way. It reduces the value of social relationships and makes humans shy away from robust relationships and become vulnerable to isolation and depression. Therefore, where social media are replacing human contact and social interaction there is no recipe for health or wellbeing. People would rather track social media on their devices rather than talk to each other on a one-to-one basis; it does seem to be changing the very basis of human social interaction as we know it.

As far as young people are concerned; they primarily use it for entertainment rather than self-improvement. Consequently, this leads to health hazards. People of all ages, especially when travelling on trains or buses, are often obsessed with smartphones, spending their time watching You-tube memes and uploading their latest performance in both public and private affairs. Some people individuals do not hesitate to post intimate moments from their private lives in order to gain more followers on social media. Over time, they become popular figures on these platforms, and they earn money based on the number of viewers. Ultimately, the excessive usage of social media disrupts creativity and the natural daily flow of life. In some circumstances, watching unnatural videos can dangerously escalate young people’s involvement in illegal activities and sexual scandals in society.

Celebrities and politicians seem to live in a world tailor made via social media. So, every minute update, especially the political and cinematic, garner high visibility on the daily, festive and work fronts. Politicians and bureaucrats deliberately articulate the progress of the government, its welfare schemes, orders, and personal milestones to garner eyeballs and as measure of success via social media.

Conclusion:

The omnipresent and omnipotent power of social media comes the people spending hours of their precious time ‘browsing’ on transient material. True creativity should not be bogged down in the name of pursuing social media. In-depth learning from a wide range of materials over time has played a crucial role in the evolution and civilizational progress of humanity. Therefore, one should avoid the shortcut of acquiring knowledge through social media. Nothing is compared to human teachings, which provide a series of values and ethics in the process of their lives, helping all humans to strive for perfection in the society. Human society is definitely making social media omnipotent by its constant demand and dependence; the inception of Artificial Intelligence only increases the risks to human society as we know it. Social media is only a tool, a means to an end, it is not the prize of life itself.

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