New world of socialization
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New world of socialization

Has social networking turned into a self destructive phenomenon, the way out is not only closed but locked

Post by on Tuesday, December 21, 2021

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Just like the classification of family is based on household pattern, the classification of an individual is based on the social pattern; this is the reason why we have been and are living with the words ‘socially active’. But the big question is, has the connotation of these words changed?

Every man tries to adjust himself to the conditions of his social environment. This process of adjustment is called socialization. The process of socialization has been there from the time man evolved. Right from the Stone Age period socialization for man has meant meeting people, sharing experiences, participating in the community activities. It was all the same up to a couple of decades back but with radical changes in the attitude of today’s generation, better  known as generation alpha  who profess to count the chicken before they are hatched, they seem to have rewritten the laws of socialization.

Our parents would often tell us how they used to spend their childhood evenings with friends in the neighbourhood, going for a walk or listening to or narrating their daily experiences to the elders of the family.

For us as children these walks and proximity with nature were replaced by movies on the television, video games and the machine that took it all away “the cell phone” apart from the ever inviting internet. At a time when already the mobile is under scrutiny for being a social nuisance, there came the twitter and the facebook the world they call as social networking. Take for instance the facebook. The public forum of facebook walls has a number of people glued to it which is ever increasing. With all the texting, instant messaging and online social networking, although children are presumed to be more connected but these interactions are clearly without the intimacy and  emotional give and take of regular, extended, face-to-face time.

With children’s technological obsession starting at ever younger ages, they are definitely missing out on the experience that helps them develop empathy and read social cues like body language which are so important to understand.

Being an avid user of these sites myself, what I can say from my past experience is that spending hours on these sites and being more ‘connected’ has surely not made any difference to me in a positive way, but one thing that I have realised over the course of time is that I have lost perhaps the most important thing in anyone’s life ‘time’. The time that I would have spent with my family, the time I would have spent with my friends, the time that I would have utilized for something better or constructive was all consumed by the new world of socialization. And that’s not all, the biggest drawback of such sites is that at no point in time you can be sure of the other person’s identity. You might have just shared some important personal details  with someone whose reality you would probably never get to know, and this loophole is repeatedly being misused to its optimum by miscreants who keep on blogging or pasting derogatory remarks that offend a person’s individuality, belief, ideology thus creating social ruckus.

The social networking world is an addiction that is different and dangerous than most of the drugs. It toxicates the user without even giving him a clue of it. The worst part of it is that it does not even have an alternative. I presume something that replaces the current socio-net world would be as threatening and perhaps even more lethal in damaging the social structure.

There was a time when all the buzz around was regarding the merits of technology but unfortunately man, like he did to everything else has used this social networking world too in such a self destroying manner that now the way out of it is not only closed but locked. We sure cannot revive the cultural richness of the past, but the big challenge ahead of today’s generation is how far they can consolidate the damage that has already been done before its too late for any remedial measure.

(The Author is a Columnist and Freelancer)

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