“Facebook & Twitter is full of trash! People are writing all sorts of non-sense thing on Social Media.”
I hear that quite often. I am asked about it quite often. There were times – such as after the April 25’s Earthquake – when I felt irritated, frustrated and even angered by what were written on Facebook and Twitter. Everyday, I see Facebook and Twitter; and I find things that people should not post there.
This morning I saw one of my students (and a journalist) posting news with a picture of a woman who was hanged herself. The other day, someone wrote a racial comment regarding a political group. Of course, there are things that shouldn’t have been posted on Social Media.
And, there are quite a lot of things that I come across everyday that I disagree – wholly or partly. Reading such posts gives be a kind of bad feelings – sometime a light one and sometime a hard one.
But I know not many people think exactly like me! I know that there are a lot of people who read my posts, disagree with me and feel the same way I felt. But this is what this is – the fact is the world had billions of people, a few hundreds of them we know, many of them read each on Social Media and no one of them think in the same way as other.
Let’s face the simplest truth: No one in the world think exactly as any other. There could be some agreement or similar thinking on some issues, but never in all issues. And, that’s one things that makes us human – different from animals. If we all think in the same way, then we will turn animals or robots.
Difference in opinions is what makes us intelligent human!
I always believed that no matter how much of trash you find on Facebook and Twitter, we should never think that it should be stopped by an external authority such as police or government.
That’s because people should express their opinions and feelings – it’s psychologically good to vent out and it’s also good for us to know and learn, despite our disagreement with opinions, what other people are thinking. We all should learn to respect other’s rights to express opinions and feelings.
If there are things we think that should absolutely not be written publicly (such as hate speech or gruesome photos or racial comments or insensitive comments), it should be changed through social media literacy. Helping people to understand what’s right and wrong (based on established social norms and laws, not on personal opinions) and the power of social media in spreading the opinions expressed. The Social Media Literacy is the only way out to help people.
#RaiseYourVoice: It’s Important to Express What You Think
I posts things – sometime knowing that they would not be well received by many. But I do write them anyway because that’s what I believe is the right thing to say at the given time and context.
A lot of things are always happening around us: political and social things. The things will have direct or indirect effect on us (more or less), so it’s important to express our opinion even if we know it’s not going to change anything. It’s our voice and people should know we exist with our opinions.
The beauty of social media is that it gives us a platform to express ourself, raise our voice and then feel good. Let us think twice before posting anything (to evaluate if they are right thing to post or not), but let’s post and keep posting!
