Name- Kingshuk Hazra
Qualification- B.A second year
Age- 19 years
Address- Village- Swastipally, Post- Joteram, District- Purba Bardhaman
“ Relationships are more important than life, but it is more important for those relationships to have life in them “ – Swami Vivekananda.
These beautiful words by the great personality Swami Vivekananda have regained their significance in the present society of the 21st century. The brilliant mind of the great sanyasi had rightly figured out that with the progress of the human race and improving technology humans have begun losing interest in understanding each other and are more interested in entering into social relationships that will only benefit them- either economically or socially. Social benefits are fetched by actions that somehow improve the social status of a person.
In the 21st century, the advent of technology in forms of different gadgets have made people’s lives much easier. The starting point of this century was through a revolution in the field of communication and the emergence of mass media. But in recent times, although the revolution has made communication easier, it has brought along with it a large number of difficulties in the lives of people especially the youth. The young population of a country is called the nation’s life source therefore as the youth develops, the country prospers. But if the youth is negatively affected by anything, the country will have to face those negative consequences. One of such elements that came up with the improvement in communication was the internet accompanied by social media.
Different social media platforms that have developed in the recent past make a claim that they seek to establish better social relations by binding people together but the question is that how far they are successful. Even if they are successful, to what extent. It is seen at present that social media which claimed to establish better relations among people have begun ruining relationships. Internet is in some way proving to be a curse to the Indian culture. This is because the internet-addicted youth do not prefer to play outdoor games, and are also losing their interest in learning age-old skills like singing, dancing, painting, and many more that will help them develop mentally as well as physically. Indian culture was once upon a time world famous because of its rich cultural heritage that included art forms, dance forms, music, and literature. But unfortunately, we have started to forget our own culture by getting busy with modern gadgets and the internet. Giving up outdoor games and getting involved in electronic gadgets have developed many side effects such as children suffering from eye diseases, weight loss, sleeplessness, depression, body aches, etc.
We know that if a county’s youth falls into the dark crevice of addiction it is near to impossible for the youth to perform something creative. Social media and the internet are also such addictions that have started dominating the young people of the country. In fact, this addiction is so harmful that it has created a new class called unwaged labor. This new class is so involved in the internet and social media that they spend most of their time in them. They fail to realize that more they use the internet the more are economically benefiting the companies that provide the internet services and for which the users are not paid anything in return. They also fail to understand that many of the websites and social media applications take data of the users which they can use in any purpose they want and hence is a concern to maintain individual privacy. A recent survey conducted in India in the year 2018 revealed shocking facts about internet usage in the country. Most of the young citizens of the nation are found using the internet for about three to four hours a day. India is seen going past China and the United States in terms of daily internet usage which is a matter of concern for the economy. A serious issue that has been brought under light is the one of cybercrime which takes place largely because of leakage of private information on the internet. Cybercrime includes cyberbullying, unauthorized hacking, stealing of money online are examples of cybercrime that are becoming frequent. In fact, every nation of the world today has a cybercrime cell to deal with this serious issue.
Students are the largest victims of the adverse effects of the internet. Cheap smartphones and cellular data have given the students easy access to the cyber world. This easy access is not only taking away large chunks of their precious time from them but also affecting their brains and hampering their careers. After getting involved with the social media the young people are seen to have created a virtual world of their own. This virtual cyber world somehow serves as an aid to eradicate isolation that an individual may face in society. Gradually this virtual world begins to manipulate the decisions and actions of the individual and ultimately gains control over him or her. This control is so strong that the internet users start giving more value to likes, comments, and followers in social media than love, blessings, and praises of family members and peer groups. They start feeling more comfortable in that virtual world than with their families. This control of the internet is so massive that it may bring some major psychological damage to the user’s mind. They may even fail to realize the difference between the real world and the virtual world and this will lead to undesired consequences. This massive control of the internet over the individual mind that has the power to manipulate an individual’s actions may lead him or her to commit spine-chilling tasks like suicide or punishable crime like murder. The technology-dominated society has witnessed several such incidents in the last two decades.
However, it is not to deny that technology and the internet have kept a few promises made by them during their birth. If a person properly learns to use technology and the cyber world, then he may find life much easier to live. Students may use the internet to understand several topics just in a click that will help them to perform well in their academics as well as it will increase their knowledge. Students living away from cities can attend online classes from home with the help of the internet and therefore the internet has served to bridge the gap between cities and villages. The Internet has also made some other tasks such as buying and selling of things, booking tickets of trains and flights, finding unknown places and facts, and many more much easily and quickly. Today the internet is used in almost every part of the world and in every sphere of life like home, office, business place, etc.
Thus, we may conclude that the internet has become an inseparable organ of everyday life and hence it is nearly impossible to remove it. But the internet users must keep in mind that the virtual world of the internet must be kept separate from the real-life society where we live. The great soul Mahatma Gandhi believed “ A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of its people “.Therefore, we must keep the usage of internet limited and must not allow it to wipe out the rich cultural heritage from the hearts of the youth.
