So, all of you who have seen "The Social Network" know where this title came from. By far one of the best movies I have seen but this blog is not about the movie. This blog is about the issue raised by Mark's girlfriend in the movie, that he can't undo his actions about the blog he wrote on her.
This blog is also not about the general security issues we have heard of or the problems you might face by having a social account. You will find a lot of blog entries and research on this topic. Although I really like one version of a venn diagram which categorizes all the social networking websites and it is bloody perfect. So what this post is about ? This post is mainly about what you have done knowingly on the internet and the repercussions of it on you and the society.
One of the examples I would like to start with is the recent Patalpani accident in India (2 people lost lives in this accident). This video has more than a million views but that is not my problem. My problem with this video is that this will always be like a constant reminder of this horrifying incident to the family of victims. If they want to move and erase it from their memory, it is almost next to impossible as this video will come to haunt them each and every time. Don't you think that this calls for an "Internet Erase" option where if you want you can just erase that post/video from internet completely ? Isn't it their right to live their own lives peacefully ? Another video was showed to me by one of friend which according to me is even more frightening.
Another example is again a video doing a lot of facebook rounds these days. This is generally a very cute video in which a kid is dancing to some of the very famous tunes of Salman Khan and is enjoying himself. But as one of friends pointed out that after growing up may be this would be the most embarrassing thing of this life. Is it fair for us to have fun on expense of somebody's embarrassment when the person involved even has no idea about it ? Does he even know that a video has been posted by his family members (I am assuming this) which might just result in causing mental discomfort ? Who knows what impact this will have on his overall development ?
Above two examples are the cases when the person in video in not involved in posting it. In first case it is completely third party involvement and second involves your immediate relatives/acquaintances. So my question here is this, does your own involvement in an incident like this makes you completely responsible for it ? I mean superficially the answer should be YES because you have signed the "terms and conditions" and the "agreement" to put it up. You do "understand" the effect it can have and you are responsible for it. But what if you have just put up something while being in a particular situation ? How about you were emotionally raged that day and you wanted to get it out on somebody? Personally I feel that when we are angry/not happy about something we tend to take it out on the most inappropriate thing according to us.
Let me put up this argument with this very famous controversial video of Alexandra Wallace from UCLA. I mean I understand all the controversy that rose and advocacy groups which came forward to raise the racism issue but what about the girl herself ? She had to leave the college and now she has got this "stain" for her entire life. Her entire life is changed by this one incident in which the point she is trying to make is not completely wrong (about people making noises in Library) although the way she brought it up is wrong. Is this punishment worth ? She did issue an apology statement after that. Will "internet" ever be able to forgive her for her deeds. I am not really sure of that.
Writing this article has made me think about the impact internet has on some people. Are these the side-effects of the "shrinking world" because of information technology. A very famous hindi saying "Gehun ke saath ghun bhi pista hai", I think fits perfectly here. Lets think about this issue and see if there is anything which can be done to provide solace to the "victims of internet".
Author's note:- Although ironically there are a few viral videos included in the article, the author does not intend to promote these videos in any manner. These videos will serve as small benchmark for the readers about where to draw the line.
This blog is also not about the general security issues we have heard of or the problems you might face by having a social account. You will find a lot of blog entries and research on this topic. Although I really like one version of a venn diagram which categorizes all the social networking websites and it is bloody perfect. So what this post is about ? This post is mainly about what you have done knowingly on the internet and the repercussions of it on you and the society.
One of the examples I would like to start with is the recent Patalpani accident in India (2 people lost lives in this accident). This video has more than a million views but that is not my problem. My problem with this video is that this will always be like a constant reminder of this horrifying incident to the family of victims. If they want to move and erase it from their memory, it is almost next to impossible as this video will come to haunt them each and every time. Don't you think that this calls for an "Internet Erase" option where if you want you can just erase that post/video from internet completely ? Isn't it their right to live their own lives peacefully ? Another video was showed to me by one of friend which according to me is even more frightening.
Another example is again a video doing a lot of facebook rounds these days. This is generally a very cute video in which a kid is dancing to some of the very famous tunes of Salman Khan and is enjoying himself. But as one of friends pointed out that after growing up may be this would be the most embarrassing thing of this life. Is it fair for us to have fun on expense of somebody's embarrassment when the person involved even has no idea about it ? Does he even know that a video has been posted by his family members (I am assuming this) which might just result in causing mental discomfort ? Who knows what impact this will have on his overall development ?
Above two examples are the cases when the person in video in not involved in posting it. In first case it is completely third party involvement and second involves your immediate relatives/acquaintances. So my question here is this, does your own involvement in an incident like this makes you completely responsible for it ? I mean superficially the answer should be YES because you have signed the "terms and conditions" and the "agreement" to put it up. You do "understand" the effect it can have and you are responsible for it. But what if you have just put up something while being in a particular situation ? How about you were emotionally raged that day and you wanted to get it out on somebody? Personally I feel that when we are angry/not happy about something we tend to take it out on the most inappropriate thing according to us.
Let me put up this argument with this very famous controversial video of Alexandra Wallace from UCLA. I mean I understand all the controversy that rose and advocacy groups which came forward to raise the racism issue but what about the girl herself ? She had to leave the college and now she has got this "stain" for her entire life. Her entire life is changed by this one incident in which the point she is trying to make is not completely wrong (about people making noises in Library) although the way she brought it up is wrong. Is this punishment worth ? She did issue an apology statement after that. Will "internet" ever be able to forgive her for her deeds. I am not really sure of that.
Writing this article has made me think about the impact internet has on some people. Are these the side-effects of the "shrinking world" because of information technology. A very famous hindi saying "Gehun ke saath ghun bhi pista hai", I think fits perfectly here. Lets think about this issue and see if there is anything which can be done to provide solace to the "victims of internet".
Author's note:- Although ironically there are a few viral videos included in the article, the author does not intend to promote these videos in any manner. These videos will serve as small benchmark for the readers about where to draw the line.
No comments:
Post a Comment