Social media

Yesterday forenoon, I was in an invigilation duty in the Department together with some young faculty members. This gave an opportunity to know how they are doing and share whatever little I have learnt over time on career milestones. At that time, a recent recruit who hails from opposite side of the country told something that surprised me. He told that before joining this institute he went through my blog and my responses in certain places in social media. These gave him another feel of the institute and helped him taking the decision.

I felt somewhat apologetic that my blog posts here have become quite irregular as the traffic got diverted to facebook! The day before yesterday evening, I was dropping my daughter at a private tuition. There, had a chance meet with another faculty, few years junior and from another department. His better half was also there who in a thankful note told that my facebook post on the movie ‘Kanttho’ (Voice), posted the previous day, was very useful. That review motivated the otherwise reluctant colleague accompany her in the Sunday matinee.

While one may tend to classify above two as 'Thumbs Up' examples which the emoticon or comment of those posts do not reveal, it is also possible that there could be 'Thumbs Down' classification too which does not reach the author. For example, if 400 views a post, about 10% i.e. 40 may actually chose to register their feedback and that too may depend on certain extraneous factors than actual content of the post. Some of the social media space is designed in such a way that only 'Thumbs Up' is registered to hype up the sentiment and no statistics is provided how many actually hit that page and chose not to take a call. Such a space may even allow manipulation with no proper mechanism to respond when a complaint is lodged.

Social media gives a platform to express oneself. It connects to many who we as author may not be acquainted with. We do not exactly know the influence-trajectory of such a post - how it modulates affective states of different individuals. Hence, as a responsible person we need to ask ourselves certain pertinent questions. What is there in the back of our mind when we make a post? Is it to stimulate a positive, constructive chain of thoughts? Is it just for fun to bring smile to someone? Is it to tickle the intellect? Is it to vent out frustration and get a sense of relief? Is it to just engage in a conversation when feeling lonely? Is it to form public opinion about something that matter?  Is it for wider circulation of an important piece of information for greater good? Or, is there some specific motive, implicit or explicit, for which the post may be considered deplorable?

What is easier to withdraw – something that is spoken to a few or something that is written in a public platform? What is easier to do – to say ‘I stand corrected.’ to those who correct me or to acknowledge the same in full public glare? The greater difficulty to admit a mistake in writing, that too in a public forum, may keep one going on and on by bringing ill-logic, fuzzing / shifting the context, shout outs. We cannot help doing so as the social media makes a public figure of me in certain sense and I am unable to consider anything as an option for which my carefully curated image can take a beating.

Therefore, an otherwise soft-spoken person, amenable to logic in a private, one-to-one discussion may behave quite differently in social media because of certain psychological vulnerability. This includes a sense of self-righteousness lurking at the back of our rational self and the posturing made in public domain. We think that bucks stop elsewhere than me. Everything else should change but not me. I deserve a better deal which I do not get due to other's fault. I know more about other's woe than that very person. All the while I am in a denial mode if clueless about what bugs myself.

Like every other powerful things, a good use of social media can initiate a virtuous cycle while a misuse can take us to nadir by cascading effect associated with a vicious cycle. Social media is a great place to be in if used responsibly else, it may curb individual development, individual's ascendancy in human scale. In this regard, it is important to note what Vivekananda said, life is a continuous struggle to move from one's lower self to higher self.

P.S.1: My elder sister complained some days back that many of my posts are not fully comprehensible. I am sorry if this post is turning out to be one such. As is said, "Dane dane pe likha hai khanewala ka nam (every piece of grain is destined to be consumed by a particular individual)", may be each post has a target audience to whom it reveals in full and for the rest, only partially!!!

P.S. 2: It is to be noted that visa applicants to the United States are required to submit any information about social media accounts they have used in the past five years under a State Department policy that started a month back, on May 31, 2019 (Link). Such measures and other deterrants may force us to be more responsible in social media and make us behave more sensibly.

Added on 26-06-2019

While I was writing the above post yesterday night on way to complete a struggling half-century at 00:00 Hrs. (there were hits and misses but no throwing away of wicket), the youngsters in the lab. were coming up with this Yaadein album to surprise me today. And, they picked up each of these photos from social media. Needless to say, I am surprised!! :-)

The seniors preferred to be traditional!

At home, the person-in-command made the payas while a seventy nine year old and her grand daughter took turn to feed initial few spoon-fulls!!