Perspective

Tech and Society: Social Media

When you have spent a few decades on the planet, you are a witness to the rapid changes, both societal and technological, happening around. So often the lessons that you had learnt in your childhood and imbibed the kind of values and principles, can act as an impediment in the newer evolving society. In earlier days, one was taught to be modest, and it was seen in a positive light. In modern society, self-aggrandizement seems to be the norm, all in full evidence on social media.

There are other noticeable changes too. Say for instance the image of our teachers. There was an aura about them that besides the way they carried themselves stemmed from our lack of sufficient private details about their life. With the onset of social media and the proclivity of many a teacher to share private details of one's life such information gets broadcast and reaches all, and this can actually lead to a dip in reverence for the teacher.

Unlike days of yore, modern society expects a teacher to work long hours with students, almost every waking moment, as Teacher, Guide, Mentor, Counselor, and what have you.
Teachers also are pushed by the system to market their institution on social media. In the long run, this erodes the dignity that the teaching profession and teachers once enjoyed amongst the pupils. And situation would not have come to this pass had technology related to social media had not been made.

The drawback of too much technology and social media is spilling over and affecting human relationships. Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Whatsapp group and others, we now know the preferences of our friends and colleagues. This has generally created a division along different lines, linguistic and political, and has actually spoiled relationships. Probably if such information was unknown to us, we would have embraced our friends and colleagues much more freely. These thoughts came to me recently and thought of sharing with you. What's your opinion on this?

Of course, you may counter me and say that it's e-media that has given me a platform and enabled me to share this thought, and that definitely is a plus which I admit. Each development has its pluses and minuses. But the real question that need be asked is whether a particular technology is leading the world to a better place, or contributing to its decline?

Image (c) istock.com

08-Feb-2025

More by :  Subhajit Ghosh


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