Article

Chinese Whispers of Social Media

Most of us must have played Chinese Whispers at some point in our lives. The game is fun and teaches a lot of things
to people who play attention! Traditionally to play this game, a group of people is required but like all spheres of life
technology has redefined the norms for this game as well. Now all you need is a smart phone!

With the ever increasing influence of technology in our lives across the globe, it’s but natural that the recent decades
saw a paradigm shift in how we eat, pray, love, interact, work, relax and play in this Brave New World! Days are
exciting and full of possibilities for all strata of society. Technology in one stroke have been able to level many gaps
that good Samaritans, development sector and Governments across the globe were trying to bridge for many years.
Till last couple of decades, it would have been really difficult to imagine a world where people from certain section of
society could freely interact with others. It’s heart-warming to see, a rural girl from a developing country can now
share her passion for environment with millions of people across the globe with click of a button. An uneducated
mother of two can earn her living by showing her culinary skills to the world! A visually impaired, old man can get
the world sway with his melodious voice! Technology has really been able to connect people, gave opportunity to
those who felt alone.

But like any great invention it has its side effect. My mother always says, “Every time a new discovery is made, Good
and Evil run towards it to claim the invention. Unfortunately, more than 80% times Evil wins!” This hold true at so
many levels. While technology has been a great leveller but it also gave power to destructive noises. People claim
things without any validation and use the social media platforms for spreading personal biases. Sometimes a series
of these noises can sow seeds in the society to create disturbance at a large scale!

Recently I witnessed one such unfortunate event very closely. The event has confirmed my belief that we are trying
to find complex solutions to our simple problems! Things that can be resolved by sitting across the table and
expressing feelings, gets blown up by accusations from different parties without considering each other’s
perspective. Some narratives are so single track because they fail to look at the simple facts related to the events. If
only all of us can use our better judgements and see things objectively! I know it is a wishful thinking, it is practically
impossible sometimes to look at the things from multiple perspective because of various factors like non-exposure
to another perspective, limited knowledge of others’ contexts, lack of empathy for needs and wants of groups,
logistics barriers etc. These things need to be paved by Media at large. Probably that’s why Free Media is considered
third pillar of Democracy. It is their responsibility to give glimpse of the world to the people who have no windows in
their lives. It is imperative that every event is reported with utmost objectivity and all the possibilities are exhausted
before publishing or sharing the views. But alas mostly events are reported largely from a single framework. It has
gone to the extent that today before reading the article one can guess what would be the views expressed in the
article by knowing the name of the publisher or media house!

The onus of creating balanced viewpoint and tolerance for varied perspectives, lies on the writers and readers alike.
Whether it’s a matter of big publications, media houses or a person writing a small text on social media, every writer
have to exercise discretion at least on these three levels: What is truth, how it is reported, what will be its
implication? Writers cannot be freed from the ethical responsibility of how their writing can impact the lives of
many. We have seen so many incidents where the reported events were far from the reality and it adversely
impacted the lives of the people involved in it, when edited videos can defame the credibility of the people or
organisations, when inconspicuous small texts on social media can spread hatred for a section of society that can
challenge the delicate fabric of society or democracy at large! Social media works on the principal of Herd Mentality
and all of us should be cognizant of our roles in it.

So next time you pick up your smart phone to write or read something, bear this in mind, how close to truth is it?

PRACHI GAUR 1