Today’s generation finds
themselves lucky because they have access to one of the most powerful tool ,
i.e. the internet! With the advancement of the technology, we can access
internet on almost every platform and it is always available on our finger tip.
Sounds like a quite progressive society right? Well , I disagree.
Remember the early eras??
Those dark olden days, where the judgement was given by the group of kangaroo
courts or a group of mobs. People were falsely accused of crimes but still they
were executed without any proof. The practise of witch hunting?? Does it ring
any bell in your mind?
You must have watched
movies in which mob armed with torches and forks, surrounds a criminal and then
banish him from the village or execute him. Can you believe those days are
back? But this time, virtually.
Facebook created history few days back, when
a billion users logged in on one day. This shows how people are more present on
the social media these days. But it have given rise to new set of so called activist
who have spread their web on the internet. These are called the slacktivist!
Admit it, we all have
come across some online petition “Which would save the world” or something as ridiculous
on various social media. And I guess you all know who are responsible for them.
But forget about slacktivists, even the regular man is influenced to teach
lesson to a wrong doer in social media.
But this online passing
of judgement has actually turned into cyber bullying, often psychologically
disturbing the person targeted.
Few days ago, a student
of Delhi university snapped a pic of a guy in a traffic signal and posted it on
Facebook, stating that she was molested, abused and intimated by this guy. She
even filed a police complaint against the guy. Guess what happened? The girl’s
post went viral and she was lauded everywhere in the Indian social media. She
even got cash reward from the chief minister of Delhi. Meanwhile, the guy was
arrested, he was declared “national pervert” by one of the leading news channel
in India, and was made poster boy of chauvinist Indian male.
Let’s forward to next
day, the guy got out from the jail and told his version of the story which
implied that the girl was at fault. Even an eye witness said the similar story.
And thus the attention shifted back to the girl. As fast as she was raised to pedestal, it took no time for the netizen to
throw her from her throne. She was ridiculed, made fun of, and it was concluded
by the netizen that she did all this drama to shoot into limelight. The great
Indian media also somehow found a “fact” that she has some political
aspiration!!! The guy was treated with sympathy and was even apologised by one
of the most famous Indian actress on twitter.
Did you find one thing
missing in the above story? The judgement by the law!!! The court judgement is
still not out and police too has not confirmed who is at fault. But the great
Indian netizen and even the media had already passed the judgement!! And this is what needs to be stopped.
According to me the girl did the right thing by snapping the pic of the guy and
filing a complaint in the police, if she felt that she was abused. But her step
to post the pic in the social media was a very bad, immature and horrible idea.
She should have waited for the court verdict. And even if the guy is at fault, I
still feel sorry for him. He went through a lot of cyber bullying and was even
declared a “national pervert” by a news channel. Of course coming from a middle
class family, he doesn’t have the resource to sue such a huge media channel.
The moral of the story??
The netizen have turned into group of lawmakers who pass judgement based on
emotions and allegations. They don’t care about the victim’s psychological
condition and give their verdict without caring about the law. And if this
doesn’t seem similar to you like the old age practise of witch hunting or
execution, then I’m sorry to hurt your feeling :-/
We all have got right to
share our views, opinion on social media. But we also need to be cautious that
we don’t overstep our right by indulging in bullying, harassing someone or
worst, passing judgement on some cases!
Now, if you want an
online petition to be signed by me, it should be of barring these buffoons who
misuse the power of social media...
Finally,
Three cheers for Social media!!
