GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has habit of giving surprises. Starting from demonetization to Article 370 the list is growing.
His latest tweet on giving up social media accounts has again taken everyone by surprise. But this time around PM’s tweet has thrown open a whole debate on the use of social media.
It is for a fact every new thing or an innovation comes with its share of good and bad things. Social media is one such example which changed the paradigm of communication, a message passed through wired world impacted our daily lives in such an impactful manner which made global world too closer in virtual reality . Person to person contact in virtual world replaced the real connection.
The situation has come to such a pass that Prime Minister of World’s largest democracy Narendra Modi who used this virtual connection to a good extent to connect to his audience now says he is thinking of leaving it.
“This Sunday, thinking of giving up my social media accounts on facebook, twitter, instagram & YouTube. Will keep you all posted,” Prime Minister said in a tweet at 8.56 pm on March 2 on 2020.
Opposition leaders started trolling him moments after the tweet, Rahul Gandhi tweeted which said “ Give up hatred, not social media accounts”.
Replying to Rahul’s tweet Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb responded, “ So that’s the reason Sonia Gandhi doesn’t have any social media accounts?”.
Whatever may be the reason, Prime Minister Modi’s tweet has thrown open a Pandora’s Box on the use of social media.
Of late, social media has been blamed for spreading disinformation. In last two years, the internet has been shut down 95 times in India so far this year, according to the Internet Shutdown Tracker, a portal which tracks such incidents across the country.
And looks like our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wants to send across a message to netizens that use it with responsibility.
Still India is not among the league of countries where internet penetration is rated highest and with literacy level still not upto comfortable level it’s the social media audio visual which impress their mind much.
In a country of 121 crore people social media if used in insane is no lesser than a Weapons of Mass Destruction Missile.
So be saner when you use social media.