SOCIAL media has become an integrated part of our lives. However, we need to realise that many of us are being unconsciously manipulated through it. People have started finding happiness online rather than looking for joy in their lives.

Social media has equipped every individual with freedom of speech. At the same time it has played the role of splitting society and is provoking hatred. People are actually getting depressed in the search for virtual acknowledgment and validation.

A former Facebook executive has criticised the social network for ripping society apart. In an address given at Standford Graduate School Of Business, Chamath Palihapitiya said: “you don’t realise it, but you are being programmed.” What he said is significant when we examine the effect that social media has had on us as users.

There are many sensitive issues that should not be discussed on social media because people voicing their opinions do not have adequate knowledge about them. This creates an unhealthy atmosphere of hatred as nothing can be done to stop them from spreading incorrect information.

The keyboard mafia can say anything from the safety of being anonymous and are hidden behind their screens yet cause damage that is indefinitely long-term for the people reading it.

The culture of trolls or in plain words cyber bullying is a significant cause of depression for the ones targeted. A loss of privacy is another issue.

People have yet to come to grips with this communication tool and become mature to realise the fact that the arguments taking place on social websites are not supposed to reflect on our personal relations. Owing to its constant use, people are forgetting how to communicate in real life.

More alarming is the fact that social media wants to be noticed and therefore comes up with attention gaining antics that will make them viral and overflood the newsfeed. Remember Qandeel Baloch?

Users would do well to utilise the positives and control its negatives. To paraphrase an ancient proverb: fire is a good servant but a bad master.

S. Muhammad Kashshaf

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018