A health worker taking nasal swab from a woman for Covid-19 test at a Public Health Laboratory and Health Care Center. (Photo | Debdatta Mallick, EPS)
A health worker taking nasal swab from a woman for Covid-19 test at a Public Health Laboratory and Health Care Center. (Photo | Debdatta Mallick, EPS)

A pandemic that is eating away at our body politic

The world is virtually battling two pandemics. One has come to affect our body and health.

The world is virtually battling two pandemics. One has come to affect our body and health. The other is eating away at our body politic—our mind and society. Covid-19 at least holds a promise of cure, a future shield. But the pandemic of hate, misinformation and hysterical discourse that pervades ‘social media’ has no end in sight.

Why do we need social media actually? How have we gained from these platforms spawned by people who have become tech billionaires? It’s time we asked these questions of ourselves. Yes, it has brought a democratisation of opinions, and instant communication, as the prophets told us. But what about the debilitating socio-political-economic impact, the crippling negativity it spawns? Till recently, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey were in responsibility denial mode, as a blogger-duo has correctly pointed out.

Social media actually takes lives: the latest instance being the riots in Bengaluru, sparked by a tortuously looped tale of Facebook blasphemy. Weeks ago, two sadhus were beaten to death in Maharashtra, based on a false WhatsApp message. Time and again, social media posts have collectivised thinking people into unthinking mobs performing acts of pre-modern violence. On each corpse is embossed words and images from FB, WhatsApp, Twitter. Such is the acquired centrality of these platforms in our public life that the Supreme Court thought it fit to hold one of our most prominent public interest litigation lawyers, Prashant Bhushan, guilty of contempt for two tweets! So the range is vast.

A Michigan University study finds that Indians have moved from being prey to fake news to outright emotional brainwashing, a socio-cultural blackmail of sorts that’s impacting behavioural patterns, producing mass hysteria … and ‘influencers’ who can trigger it. A year ago, Microsoft found that over 64% Indians encounter fake news on a daily basis, the worst hit among the 22 nations surveyed! The billionaires plead a fake helplessness. It’s upon us.

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