The internet is often a source of anxiety-inducing hatred and relief can only be found in the real world.
I happen to be one of the early users of Facebook when it was not jam-packed and when people shared posts or photos with sensibility.
There was no monotonous hidden state propaganda or hate speech, no harassment or bullying or provocation of radicalism.
People tend to share the things they love, not the other way around.
With time, internet became available to most people and it turned out to be an obsession for some.
The problem that we didn’t anticipate but eventually faced was the impact of the creation of a platform for homogeneously ill-minded ignorant prople.
In a short while, they found a new alternative to divert their perversions.
It is one thing to share opinions or grievances and another to vehemently criticise an issue -- one thing to promote religion or secularism and another to infuriate public sentiment
They created fake profiles of girls, vulgar pages, and groups -- where sharing of pornography or women’s private IDs is open for all. From “sexting” to sharing naked photos -- they became an expert at everything under that realm.
Furthermore, with the uprising of impetuous Facebook users avidly attacking non-believers or people of different faiths, public figures, and women -- sometimes it becomes stressful to stare at the screen.
Not so long ago, the internet was a reliable escape from the harsh realities of the world. But these days, it is social media we need to escape. We scroll through the homepage to merely snuff out a temporary feeling of boredom.
But to give a brief summary of what I have stumbled upon, especially in the public comment section: High doses of hatred, radicalism, sexual objectification, match fixing, irrelevant religious propaganda, death threats, and the xenophobic US president promoting hatred.
It is one thing to share opinions or grievances and another to vehemently criticise an issue -- one thing to promote religion or secularism and another to infuriate public sentiment.
A single image cannot illustrate an incident; nor can it describe the background story.
It is easy to fabricate a scenario on a social media platform because we are too busy to investigate the motive.
Regardless of our ethnicity, religion, culture, independence, we are divided. On a fine day, if you wake up and are notified of a secret group sharing pornographic material of your friends or acquaintances, don’t say I never warned you.
Time has come for everyone to learn social media etiquette. Also, it is urgent to impose strict regulations for under-aged people on social media by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and urge the civil society to take it as a serious concern.
Muhammad Siraj Uddin Ayaz is a freelance contributor.
