Social Media is inherently a Selfish Medium.

My mother works as a teacher in a nearby school. A few days ago, she narrated an incident that took place in her school. A not-for-profit organization, "Feeding India" had come there, with the purpose of serving a meal to the poor and needy children in the locality. The organization works with the purpose of eliminating hunger and wastage of food in India. The volunteers took pictures of children enjoying their food and having a good time. The idea was to post the pictures on facebook and instagram and spread awareness about their selfless initiative and about unparalleled humane qualities of compassion, sharing and the joy of giving. Their volunteers and members are pro-active on social sites and aim to encourage others in joining hands with them to serve the underprivileged.

This is just one example of showing how massive, influential and significant social media has become. Social Media is nothing but computer mediated technologies that facilitate sharing of views, information and interests via virtual communication. The content that floats on the platform is user generated, be it posts, photos, videos or comments. There was a time when communication with the people living far from us was a hectic affair. But with the advent of social media, the barriers in communication (medium, time, distance) have largely been eliminated and the world has shrunk into a global village.  

But with time, the nature of social media is experiencing changes. These changes are occurring because of the way social media (it's platforms like facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube) is being used.  And because of this it is often criticized to be a "Selfish Medium".

 

The people who usually shy away from sharing views openly with people, are active on social sites because that provides a voice to their opinions. Social media in a way is providing them a 'safe escape' from the real world into the virtual world. Though there's nothing wrong in it, but in a way, it is causing communication gap between people and generations. We all know that festivals, celebrations and get together are meant to create memories. But the selfishness of social media can be sensed from the fact that making memories is overtaken by uploading pictures and selfies. Pictures are clicked not with the purpose of cherishing them, but to garner more likes and comments after they are uploaded on facebook and instagram. People who witness road accidents, before lending any help to the injured person, get busy in clicking pictures and making videos. This in a way undermines the value of someone's life where the delicate and precious fabric of society is getting weakened.

 

These days on posts and pictures we find very little room for genuine appreciation and constructive feedback. People fish more for praises even if they're not genuine. Since social media is a public and open medium, even a little criticism done may have a great impact on the psychology of the person. Thus on one hand technology has made advancements, and on the other it has also increased the vulnerability of humans. The existence of fake news (like a micro-chip being embedded in the new 2000 Rs note), death hoax (of famous celebrities), trolling (of politicians, celebrities, and even common people) reveal the selfish side of social media. Such aspects of social media exist to have fun at others' expenses.

 

Since social media is an integral part of our lives, Terrorist organizations take advantage of this in expanding their ideas, influencing the vulnerable, radicalizing the youth and recruiting them using online platforms. Separatists use such platforms to spread their agendas and disturbing the harmonious environment. Since the content on social media is user generated as mentioned above, clashes of opinions take place. A person who may be a militant / separatist for some, may be a war hero for others. But these clashes often take disastrous turns (as we've been seeing in the case of Jammu and Kashmir) and worsen the social condition of regions.

 

Another recent example that reveals the selfish side of social media was the Russian interference in the US elections. The US intelligence community concluded the engagement of Russian Government in the elections because of their preference of one candidate over other. Thus an "influence campaign" was directed to harm the election campaign of one candidate, in which e-mails were hacked to squeeze out data to serve the selfish interests.

These were some instances which prove that social media is a selfish medium. But considering it to be just selfish would be restricting it and narrowing down it's purposes. Every coin has two sides, so does the social media.

There's no denying the fact that social media provides a safe escape from the real world. But its adequacy in the life of today's talented youth can not be overlooked. Singers, dancers, comedians who are immensely talented yet don't get the right platform, upload their videos on youtube and instagram and get instantly noticed by the people. This is the power of social media today. Platforms like Youtube provide lucid lectures for free for students who reside in remotest regions. Thus 'distance' as a barrier no longer comes, in the path of attaining quality education and knowledge.

Another non-profit organization, which utilizes the social media in the right way is the Khalsa Aid. On one hand if separatists make efforts in spreading hatred via social media, this organization takes the advantage of social sites like Twitter and Facebook in posting about universal brotherhood, kindness and selfless service. 

Social Media played a significant role in the success of Arab Spring by facilitating communication between protesters. Demonstrations were organized and awareness was spread among the locals via social media. Thus social media allows campaigns and also generates widespread support for the cause. The recent #MeToo Campaign is a case in point, which encouraged women to speak up against sexual assaults. #SelfieWithDaughter was an initiative of Indian Government in which parents especially fathers were encouraged to post selfies with their daughters with the aim of promoting girl child. During the Nirbhaya incident, people were filled with anger and outrage. It was the social media that turned their anger into mass nationwide protest.

It is not just the common people that take the advantage of social media in interacting with others and raising a cause, but also the Government has realized the utility of it. Inorder to become more responsive and accountable, Government came with "Twitter Seva" to capture citizens' grievances. Today, not just the commoners but also the ministers and representatives are also active on social media  hence it has become easier for people to bring their legitimate issues in the forefront and get them solved. Not only this, but the administrators like N.Prasanth popularly known as the "Collector Bro" remain active on social media and make themselves available for people all the time. 

The Government knows the kind of influence that social media has on the people. Hence people were persuaded via #GiveItUpCampaign to give up on their LPG subsidies. Because of this government was left with huge sums which was used to provide new connections to the untapped population. During the launch of Clean India Mission, the Indian Prime Minister asked the people to upload their pictures of cleaning their surroundings.

The above mentioned instances clearly highlight that simply labeling social media to be a selfish medium would just be an exaggeration. It's selfishness and selflessness depends on the way we use it. It is that tool which can either be wisely used or foolishly abused. Humans have created it using their skills and knowledge. Thus it should not be allowed to become the master. Like every other technology, it too is a double edged sword. And since it's utility will only increase with time (digitization and modernization) , efforts (like wise use of social media, international collaboration for cyber-bullying, effective regulation to curb fake news, banning sites of terror organizations) should be taken to make it "less selfish".