- Technology is double-edged. There are reasons to cheer as also to despair.
- Social media has various negative impacts like privacy issues, information overloads and internet fraud.
- Social media has made the world a small space by allowing mass cultural exchange and intercultural communication.
- India being a secular country is a home for the people of various religious and cultural beliefs. When these beliefs clash the consequences are unpleasant.
- A mere comment or opinion on a certain belief on social media spreads like fire leading to riots and destructive rallies.
- Its heavy usage has ill effects on health issues and there is cyber bullying, online harassment and trolling.
- The trolling of women has brought to the fore the disturbing reality of online violence and abuse women face in India.
Consequences
- A study was conducted to determine the extent to which a person’s opinion is influenced by a group. According to it, an individual was willing to give a wrong answer just to conform to the majority view. This also explains the impact of fake news online, which is said to contribute to a polarised society.
- A study found that factors like user homophily and algorithmic filtering have created the cycle of enforcing and reinforcing belief systems. This ensures that we don’t open our minds to diverse opinions.
- User homophily means users in a social system tend to bond more with ones who are similar to them than to ones who are dissimilar.
- We are getting trapped in narrower world views that are seeping into not only voter behaviour but everyday personal interactions.
- WhatsApp faced severe criticism as lynching incidents flared up by free flow of fake news on the platform.
- Twitter along with Facebook came under intense scrutiny of policymakers in the US for its failure to stop the spread of misinformation during the 2016 election.
