Social media has become an indispensable part of people's lives. To be entertained, people search various materials in disparate sites. However, there are instances when embarrassing gaffes are made on social media platforms.
There are myriad incidents of fake news, funny but disgusting memes, and even blasphemous posts and disrespectful posts regarding religion and sects. Most of the culprits are youth especially those who are reading in school, colleges, and universities. The satirical and immoral contents, photos, and funny posts are promoting negativity among people. It is a well-known fact that social media cause the victim to become morose and withdrawn from society. It mitigates Face-to-Face Communication Skills, procrastinates understanding and truthfulness, and produces laziness.
Fake news is spreading like wildfire. It is an insidious issue in the world. It made me astonished that 80% of reports have been fake about Coronavirus in the US.
According to a survey of 2020, 60 percent of the 16-to 24-year-old population in the UK took the help of social media for information about the coronavirus, and it was astonishing that 59 percent had come across fake news on the subject. An American news channel asserted that online news sites are less than 37% which are trustworthy. Reading fake news makes people feel sad and depressed about the current state of the world. Additionally, many say they’ve noticed that the media disproportionately focuses on negative information.
An American research center (Pew Research Centre) investigated in 2020 that 53% of American adults get their news from social media.
It has become a huge network of spreading false news and often a lot of things are thrown on social sites without any confirmation. Being a Muslim, It is also forbidden to copy anything heard and to pass on anything without research. In addition to sharing false news, it has become a tool for backbiting people, exposing their shortcomings, and even slandering and slandering people.
“NBC News” asserted that during the second quarter of 2020, Facebook deleted seven million posts that were based on fake news. All these posts contained false and unverified information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Their removal was also a way to prevent this fake info from putting people’s health in danger. During the same year, the social media giant removed another 22.5 million posts which were containing hate speech.
Social media is getting worse with every passing day. Some of the woeful issues are that social networking sites are the loss of individual privacy. For instance, sexual predators, cyberbullying, time consumption, and loss of social skills. People are sharing immoral videos and promoting pornography through Whatsapp groups. besides this, threats, intimidation messages, and rumors can be sent to the masses by dint of social media. Personal data or information can easily be hacked and shared on the internet. Social networking sites can easily ruin someone's reputation just by creating or sharing a false story which is a disgusting activity.
It is observed that social apps are mostly used by teenagers and children. The main reason is the rampant social media and the rampant social media devastates the innocent minds of children. Surveys show that 90% of teens ages 13-17 have used social media. Two-thirds of teens have their smartphones with internet facilities.
It is shocking that 46% of 11-year-olds, 51% of 12-year-olds, and 28% of 10-year-olds now have a social media profile. A survey that was conducted in January 2022, demonstrated that
58.4% of the world's population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 minutes .such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, Tiktok, etc.
There are 4.48 billion people actively using social media in the world in 2021. It was 13% more than compared in 2020.
In 2022, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 147 minutes per day, up from 145 minutes in the previous year.
It is shameful for us that it is also being used for terrorism and violence and its users include self-styled representatives of different religions, who are wearing sacred clothes of religion to throw dust in the eyes of the people. Furthermore, we are losing and forgetting our true value by counting and focusing on likes, comments, and shares. Everyone is suffering from loneliness in the list of thousands of friends. Experts say that if a boy takes a selfie more than six times a day and posts it on social media, it means that he has a lot of mental disorders. A survey tells that one thousand selfies are posted on Instagram every ten seconds.
Social media has paved the way for illegal activities such as exploitation and coercion.
Harassing people using social media in which they tell them to post personal photos of social users on the internet; so far many women have been targeted by them on the internet. They are also taking money and spreading their pictures and scary information to the people. However, this is a small scale but it creates a lot of problems. they have no option to block such offensive posts.
I request Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to ban sexual content on the internet and social media and also ban WPN which opens the block websites. Innocent children are being sexually abused every day in our country. The government is destroying society in the name of freedom of social media but this issue is being considered a joke. Why the government is not taking stern action in this regard. Taking? People are doing illegal business in public on Facebook and other social media platforms and everything is becoming public without any restriction. All parents should come together in this matter and call on the government to impose severe punishments for these misdeeds and close down the institutions which are busy covering up these heinous acts of their employees. I plead all parents to not remain silent. Don't risk your children's lives.
Abdul Malik Rauf,
Kech
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