Anarchy at Social Media: A Critical Look at the Challenges and Opportunities

Social networking has become a new obsession of internet users worldwide. Internet is flooded with social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google plus and so on; most of them offering similar services but operating in different genres. One has to accept the fact that the social networking sites are beginning to change the way we communicate with each other. Since social media apps are also available with mobile phones, which are affordable, the usage of networking applications has increased. Social networking sites have been touted as generation next public sphere, where people discuss issues of public interest with a lot of seriousness. In recent times, there have been instances of social media playing a key role in activism. Many activists who played crucial roles in the ‘Arab Spring’ used social networking as a key tool in expressing their thoughts concerning unjust acts perpetrated by their governments; India against corruption (IAC) movement in our own backyard is another classic case in point with regard to effective use of social media for social activism. Along with these positives, social media also suffers from some serious flaws. The freedom available to the people on these platforms has given rise to a new set of problems to deal with. Language is a big casualty on the social networking sphere. There are problems like obscenity, impersonation, morphing, hate mongering, and insensitive expressions on issues, people, places, and institutions. Clearly, there is a need to rein in such obscene expressions. This paper attempts to identify the problems of social media and presents a critical assessment of the same. It also discusses on the regulatory measures needed to bring in some sort of order in social media, which is the need of the hour, to maintain the dignity of this very effective media.