Social media has changed how we communicated with each other. In much simplest words, social media has destroyed the barrier or limit that we had regarding the way we communicate, in the past. Now, we can easily talk or text with other people anytime we want. We can easily express what in our mind and show it to the world in a matter of second. However, this condition turns out brings more problems to our life. And, this social media problem is getting serious these days.
What Kinds of Problem We’re Facing in Today’s Social Media?
If we have to say it in one word, we will choose the “abusing” word. Yes, the anonymity privilege we acquire from social media allows us to have the freedom to say anything we want. Even it means we hurt others’ feeling and in the worst case, abuse others. It seems doesn’t make any sense. However, the word we type with our gadget can affect someone’s life. You must be familiar with the suicide case caused by digital abusing and humiliating.
We won’t say that the case we said in the paragraph above is much better than the next case. Both of them are equally severe. But, the next case has a bigger impact. What we are talking about here? It is a hoax.
Hoax or fake news can easily spread globally with the help of today’s social media. Worst of all, this kind of news affect many numbers of people. This kind of news also can even move the mass to do something. Mostly, it is related to radicalism or anarchism that can affect the hugely social life of a certain area. We have seen many examples of this case. And, stupidly, many people who are declaring to be smart people and very knowledgeable about digital world, influenced by this kind of fake news.
The Solutions
For the social media problem, there are unique trends that we can find today. Lately, many people prefer to use private social media type. Or, they also use the niche type network to communicate, share information or express their idea to each other.
According to Pew Research, 40% of Facebook users from the U.S. take a break from this social media or doesn’t check their account too often these days. And, mostly, it also happens to other popular social media, like Twitter or Instagram. In most case, it happens because they are tired with the harsh or abusing comment they receive in their account. Or, they also get tired with those hoaxes and can easily pop up as viral news in their timeline.
Therefore, the best solution is providing the privacy-focused type media to communicate. Facebook has already planned to do this. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, explains about his company plan to create this version of Facebook in the future, at the F8 2019 conference.
Private social media like this will help the internet user to communicate healthier. We never said that this privacy-focused will eliminate the digital abusing like this completely. There will be always a hole where that irresponsible abuser can get through to the area where it’s supposed to be clean from them. However, with a more controlled environment like this, at least the problem can be taken care of much faster before it is spreading and giving problems to many users.
As for the hoax problem, the main solution is changing people mindset. And, it isn’t easy. To fight hoax and fake news, people must have a smarter mindset and doesn’t believe anything that they get from the media, online or offline. They have to do comparison and research in order to find the truth. They have to do it, even if the information is coming from the trusted source, like a big news portal and such.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have enough time to do that. Therefore, we are mostly just swallowing that information without any filter. This is where the government needs to take action. Creating stricter regulation that punishes those who spread these fake news is one of the solutions. Moreover, they also must to hold many events and program to educate society about the dangers of the hoax. That will, at least, minimize the damage.
Conclusion
Social media is indeed one of the best inventions that the human race ever invented. And, just like a knife, you can use it to kill or cook a delicious meal. It is all depending on us, human. So, if you want to get the best from it and avoid social media problem we explained above, there is only one thing to do. Use social media wisely.
