THE social media, with its great diversities, is now also being used for all the wrong reasons metamorphosing into a web of critical comments, complaints and insults of a more personal nature like bashing people for their personal life.

Today if Facebook had a dislike button, it would probably be the most used feature on the site. Now one can just log into and surf social networks to discover numerous examples of online shamming.

One example is of my friend who has a Facebook account which was hacked and the person who did this blackmailed him for Rs5,000 for returning his account, otherwise he threatened to paste fake posts and obscene photos on his account.

Therefore, my question is: Is social media the best way to respond?

My friend may have been involved in anything, but making fun of himself in front of his Facebook contacts, which may include family, friends and colleagues, may result in bigger consequences.

It seems it has become more acceptable to bash friends and family online when you are not with them. If your husband is annoyed, do you really need to tell the entire world about it? Does anyone care about how horrible your ex - girlfriend was? Humiliating her on the social media won’t make people think highly of you.

Confessions pages on Facebook, created by school and college students, are also active forums for promoting gossips, shaming and bullying with description. “Confess the deepest, darkest and dirtiest secrets here.”

While people making the confessions remain anonymous, they often give full names or the expected year of graduation of the other students, making it easy for anyone to identify him or her. You can find many not-so-funny confessions while browsing through these pages.

Attacking people’s personal life and their self-esteem might give you fun but for that person it might be a serious blot on his character.

Why can’t we think that by promoting this culture we can attack our own sisters and brothers or lead to the character assassination of our sons and daughters? So, please don’t damage anyone’s self-respect or mock his profession.

QASIM ZAHID Lahore