Sapna K Sangra
There was a time when we cried foul when someone read or touched our daily diaries trying to sneak peek into our personal lives. Quite contrary to this, today, our closed diaries are now the open books on the social media with unlimited access. Mind you, if you’re ignoring the stuff that is being shared by skipping to hit the ‘Like Button’, get ready for the flak when you happen to meet that friend or a relative in person the next time who you have dared not to acknowledge on the social media. Undoubtedly, we have come of age, it seems!
With Mark Zuckerberg’s post apologising for his company’s handling of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal doing rounds on the social media, the world has suddenly woken up to the harsh realities of excesses by Facebook, Google, Amazon etc and consequently to the lurking danger to our lives. Zuckerberg’s comments reflected the first time he apologized following an uproar over how Facebook allowed the third-party developers to access the user data. He said in an interview to CNN, “Our responsibility is to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide, with a global usage penetration of 22.9 percent. The number of Facebook users in India stands at 241 million compared to the US’s 240 million according to ‘The Next Web Report’ published in 2017. This number rose to 250 million for India while it reduced in the US to 230 million as of January 2018.
To what extent the data related to the users is protected by the social media sites and the other ad-companies is yet to be seen but the fact remains, our lives necessarily rally around these sites and our existence, so to say, has come to be associated with our presence on these sites.
What we need to understand at the moment is the Truth that we have allowed this to happen. The pertinent question one needs to ask is: Why everything on Facebook? Are our Lives really for sale? We, in India, are quite far away from even remotely thinking about these issues; forget about questioning and seeking answers. We should have been wary of the ill-effects of technology but by becoming its slaves, we have reduced our selves to mere ‘Commodities.’ The worth of our dreams, ideas, aspirations, emotions has all been reduced to just ‘things’.
As I said, by selling our lives on these sites, we have allowed ourselves to be treated as ‘commodities’ which have certain ‘exchange value’ and hence can be bought and sold leading to the profits and loss for its sellers. To put it simply, these ad-companies and social networking sites are our sellers and ‘we’ and ‘our lives’ having been reduced to things and commodities are being sold. Seldom have we realised that our pictures when liked or loved increase its value. More personal and private the stuff, better market it will have on these sites for they are an open source of amusement to people. More sensual the stuff, better circulation it will have. Obscene stuff lures one and all equally. The definition of what is obscene was very society specific at one point in time but its definition is undergoing rapid changes. A lot of stuff that looked abnormal a few years back is quite normal today. Share some valuable information that requires time, energy and effort to read and see how it goes unnoticed but post a photograph and see the instant reactions.
So, we are the ‘stories’ which are being sold on the internet. Ours may be a sob story, an inspirational one, a saga of struggle or a source of an entertainment. As long as there are takers, who are obviously there, our lives hold value for these sites in the form of data which can be stored or used in a way well beyond our comprehension. The fact that India has been a repressed society bridled in patriarchal set-up, there has been no let up for women and children especially surrounding issues such as sexuality which has operated undercover. The Internet is the new space that has been found by varied sections of society. The element of novelty offered by these sites has thus lead to a phenomenal increase in the number of users in India especially from the rural settings who may be finding this as means of competing with the urban lot or merely as a source of enhancing their social status.
Whatever may be our reason to be on social media, from research to fun to connect with the old pals, it has to be done with responsibility. Our irresponsible actions can not only put our lives at risk but those connected to us can be at risk too. It may not be as simple as just sharing our idea or an emotion or an ideology, it may also mean unknowingly getting influenced by the forces that begin controlling and directing the course of our lives. Better still; operate cautiously lest internet becomes your life’s remote control.
(The writer teaches Sociology at the University of Jammu
and is the State Chairperson of SPIC MACAY)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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