I keep getting emails and Facebook requests to sign petitions, reply to stop deforestation at coal mine sites, post in order to get criminals arrested, post in order to raise my voice against injustice, share to make a statement against vices...the list is endless. And every time, I think, how many of us have felt virtuous after having complied with the requests from the said posts and emails. We sign, and we have made a difference. We post, and we have made a difference. We share, and we have made a difference. But, have we stopped for a moment, before the mouse click, where have we made the difference? Have we even thought about the difference we think we have made, after we have clicked and shared and posted and signed?
We were always a country of armchair critics. Our discussions at chai thelas on cricket and politics did not go beyond criticizing how Zaheer Khan (or Ravi Shastri, or B S Bedi) should have bowled that over, or how Manmohan Singh (or even Morarji Desai) can't utter a word to save his life. With the reach of the internet and spread of Facebook, the space of criticism has spilled over into virtual domains as well. Our disappointment with our cricketers and our government is more visible, and reaches them faster through social networking. Or at least, so we would like to think.
We like and we think our voices are heard. We share and we think we have made a statement. But that isn't where my problem lies. Making political statements on politics and cricket on social networking does have a reach that a tea stall can't. social networking has a proven and time tested potential of connecting people and there are a lot of good things about it.
But unfortunately are getting too used to this medium. Our world has been reduced to our social networks. We seem to think that our responsibilities are also confined to the world of internet and particularly, Facebook or twitter. We believe we can make a difference to scores of other less privileged individuals by just sharing and liking posts or signing petitions on the internet. I am not refuting that we can't, but that's not the only thing that can make a difference. We can't afford to move on to our apolitical real lives and make political statements only in our virtual public lives. We can't swear by our ideals in our real lives if our responsibilities towards others are limited to the internet.
I share this on Facebook. And close the page.
We were always a country of armchair critics. Our discussions at chai thelas on cricket and politics did not go beyond criticizing how Zaheer Khan (or Ravi Shastri, or B S Bedi) should have bowled that over, or how Manmohan Singh (or even Morarji Desai) can't utter a word to save his life. With the reach of the internet and spread of Facebook, the space of criticism has spilled over into virtual domains as well. Our disappointment with our cricketers and our government is more visible, and reaches them faster through social networking. Or at least, so we would like to think.
We like and we think our voices are heard. We share and we think we have made a statement. But that isn't where my problem lies. Making political statements on politics and cricket on social networking does have a reach that a tea stall can't. social networking has a proven and time tested potential of connecting people and there are a lot of good things about it.
But unfortunately are getting too used to this medium. Our world has been reduced to our social networks. We seem to think that our responsibilities are also confined to the world of internet and particularly, Facebook or twitter. We believe we can make a difference to scores of other less privileged individuals by just sharing and liking posts or signing petitions on the internet. I am not refuting that we can't, but that's not the only thing that can make a difference. We can't afford to move on to our apolitical real lives and make political statements only in our virtual public lives. We can't swear by our ideals in our real lives if our responsibilities towards others are limited to the internet.
I share this on Facebook. And close the page.
2 comments:
Welcome to the world of Blogging :)
Thanks Vignat, I have been blogging since 2005!
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