Data Sharing

In the morning as he woke up, earlier he used to thank God for the wonderful sleep he got last night and feel the present moment, his own presence, and his surroundings, about past day, about the future courses of action. Now for him, things have changed. As he woke up, he immediately felt compulsive to pick up the phone, log in to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, one after another to check the responses he has received through his post the last day, or the past days before. He was worried and wanted to know how many people liked his post and commented on it. As he thought that more the likes, more he is actually liked by the society and the small ‘fake friend’s group’ that he has built around virtually with the help of the surveillance technologies, so-called social media, now de-socializing the world.

It is clearer now as the world knows & articulates that data is the new Gold mine. More the number of pictures, better face recognition; as more number of the types of “like” ticks, his behavior can be segregated accordingly; number of comments will allow the insights into his mind; what is the clicking into; how much time is he spending in a particular content; all can be tracked and hence we “humans” are self-commercializing ourselves. It is not hidden that this big data will be used by global companies to not only for the commercial purposes in order to sell their product but also mass surveillance activities. There was a recent debate in the news when there was a minor amendment in law. Law had allowed the government agencies in the year 2000 to even take a peek into our mobile phones & our laptops to check what are we doing, without our permissions, in the name of national security. Few talked about it & then it was buried in the ground.

Data sharing has been habituated and is turning into mental disease. It has been seen and reported that some people felt the lack of confidence when their posts were not liked & they committed suicide. Depression caused by the excessive use of social media is highly probable. Why is it happening? How vulnerable are you? What data are you sharing on the internet for others to see it? How sensitive is it? Do you feel a continuous buzz in your mind all the time? How often are you spending your time checking something on the internet? How are you utilizing your time & hence your life? It is important to ask ourselves these questions before the time we become so vulnerable that a turning back is not possible. Ultimately, it is an individualistic approach and one must introspect what is our limit, how much can we enter into this pool? Social media exists for us; we do not exist for it.

At last, social media has done a great job in bringing up awareness, activism & integrating the bigger part of the world. Let's make the best use of it!

P.S.: It is up to your discretion to decide upon. You may feel different about it & by the way, views change over time based on good and bad experiences!