Do you manage the use of the internet or internet will manage you?

Do you manage the use of the internet or internet will manage you?

                                                                                                                Bhanu Bhakta Khatiwada

 #using_social_medias_good_or_bad?

                                                                    Photo: Google

This may be a question that remains in debate without a specific conclusion. If somebody asks this question, you have a ready-made answer: oh, of course, we should manage the time or in a way, we should control it. We people, who have easy access to the internet through cable internet, wifi, or mobile data use, are falling into an addiction with the use of the internet. One of the bad aspects of this use goes to the use of social sites as Facebook, Twitter, and others, rather than to the creative discovery or analysis.

My house owner’s daughter (about 10 years old) has got a Facebook account.  I am friend with her dad and mom in it, but I feel quite different whenever I see her status on Facebook like where she reached, what she ate, where they are visiting and so on. It has got some reasons. I always think that social media should be used properly at a specific time. It does not matter if you do internet business or work on a computer for the whole day. But if a primary school girl/boy uses Facebook and be updated with likes and comments…just think about what happens. What happens to her/his study? Where does her creativity lie? Though I am talking about children’s cases, it is quite similar even to the adults.

Once, I was in a village due to an earthquake. During my stay there, I used to pass my time with the talk about different issues. Once I said that if you want to get more information, simply do google and find the way. The man whom I was talking to surprised me and asked what is that google search? Can he use google in his android? To my surprise, he was using Facebook through his mobile but he does not know how to search on google. This is common in villages.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Diana Popova of Burgas Free University traces out the advantages and disadvantages of the use of social media. She writes: 

The  use  of  social  media  in  the  workplace helps  to  achieve  a  lot  of  the business objectives of  a  company  or an organization… On  a  more  positive  note,  social  networks  are  a  great  innovation  which,  when  used wisely and with good intentions can be a real blessing both for those in the fast lane of life and for those  who prefer a  more  relaxed life, both  for individuals and  for corporate  user, both  for young people and for adults.  

She further adds “Facebook  and  Twitter is widely used by marketing. LinkedIn is popular with human resources. The new generation of employers and employees want to be connected 24/7 - both at home and at work, both for fun and for practical reasons”.

Regarding the negative impact, she writes: “Social media has been around for quite some time and is no longer a novelty. What is new is the astonishing rate at which it is evolving and the growing awareness that currently it cannot be controlled adequately for the purposes of personal, organizational and global safety”.

Dr. Popova divides the negative aspects into four sub-category. They are Negative Impact on Schooling and Employment, Negative Impact on Real-Life Communication, Negative Impact on Personal Safety and Negative Impact on National Safety. She mentions that Social  networks  are  very  attractive  to young people. They,  more  often  than  more mature people, This gets them in trouble with university administration for  lack  of  discretion,  moral  breaches,  and  violation  of school  policies  or  the  adopted school behavior code.  

Regarding the Negative Impact on Personal Safety, she writes: Social  Networking Sites create   the   risk   of identity   theft   and fraud. Personal information carelessly put out on social networks can be used by scheming people for unlawful actions. E-mail addresses, bank account numbers, names, pictures, location, etc. can be used to commit  online  crimes,  deplete  bank  accounts,  involve  minors  in  sexual  crimes,  and  facilitate burglaries, among other things.

Social networks make you busy with updating the things or information on your profile. If you go on thinking about it and updating status or information, you may forget the real communication. Rather than sharing the ideas personally or in a group, you think of writing there. 

Despite many advantages of the use of social media, it may collapse your family or social life. Rather than being busy chatting, liking, and commenting, you can keep yourself busy with other creative things and leave the negative result of it. Wow, wow wow…do not forget to use social media for a good purpose and finding solutions to your problems.