Social media trending apps Technology is the name of the game now. And, it has pervaded every cell of humanity in a manner like never before. Right since the onslaught of social media, platforms that were meant primarily to meet ‘networking’ needs have found themselves in the news, sadly, for the wrong reasons.
Social media has indeed come a long way in connecting people, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs manage to contact niche customers. The entity has also helped people in obtaining the right information and at the time of need.
Yet, fact remains that social media can pose serious threats to its users and in more ways than one. Cyberbullying, fraud, impersonation, stalking, blackmailing, identity theft, trolling, pornography, harassment, violent online games, etc. are some of the risks associated with social media platforms today.
Also, like any other offence, the risks associated with the use of social media have hugely multiplied, in particular, for the marginalised and the weaker segments. In fact, most such offences and crimes are targeted towards such groups that include and is not limited to children, women, LGBTQI, disabled, marginalised groups and the elderly.
Alarmingly, the magnitude of crimes and offences emerging from the use of social media has only grown. With it in sync has been the growth of the number of existing and potential targets. Over the last ten years have emerged some of the most popular social networking and personal data- sharing services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, WhatsApp etc. With each passing day, new social media apps and platforms emerge the world over and so do the followers thereby creating new risks for its users.
Technology, privacy and consent
With the emergence of technology and its slew of products such as applications, platforms and software, procuring consent for divulgence of personal information that may be shared or provided voluntarily by the party involved only, is mandatory. Hence, consent is mandatory while providing any application access to one’s files or details, at the onset, at regular intervals following updates and on any changes being made to the programme that will need concurrent re- validation of consent. It is the norm for parties to be slack on the issue and often also arbitrarily provide consent without reading the fine print. They, nonetheless, have to provide ‘consent’ for the same.
As a routine consent may be procured also in passing which is constantly being reviewed again and tweaked to include audio, local languages, even mandatory scrolling till the end of the terms or consent clearances on each page before the user is able to proceed further or use the programme or platform in question. This is done to procure consent lest it violate the privacy of the user concerned. The law on privacy is a constantly evolving one and, with technology growing by leaps with every passing day, there’s a virtual dash to meet demands and fulfil legal provisions.
The virtual world of human interaction
Among the myriad variables that the internet offers to improve human communication and connectivity, social media platforms, by themselves, have overwhelmingly changed the inherent variables of communication. Social media was dictating human interactions and inter- personal activities even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Yet, and oddly too, restrictions imposed during the lockdown generated a huge demand for platforms and technologies connecting humans. Getting technosavvy was the easiest thing to do now.
It has been the motto for most, over the last few years, to ‘Stay connected’. And, what better way to stay connected than on social media particularly through apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, etc., aimed to make the task so easy. Technology has come a long way to serve human needs and has constantly developed to keep pace with the ever- changing need of the hour, the latest being to ‘stay networked’.
New trends and fears
It’s the Fear of Missing out (FOMO) that has, inadvertently, boosted and played a pivotal role in ensuring technology advances from a personalised DOS system to email and then Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and the range of interactive social media. Individuals, in order to supplement numbers and further viewership and, concurrently, digital footfalls and revenue, fell for it hook, line and sinker.
FOMO is entirely psychological and not tangible or real yet affects lives in the real world. It isn’t of surprise to find huge revenue models thriving on FOMO to further their fiscal interests and businesses. Needless to say, ethics takes a complete backseat for industries thriving on FOMO-driven individuals who refuse to counter it with logic.
Why, the entire media industry operates on FOMO much on the lines of the Social Media industry that is known to milk the sentiment in order to boost ‘viewership numbers’ and ‘figures’ that, again and inadvertently, affect revenue models. It’s, after all, all about the money.
Technology aided Covid-appropriate behaviour
From the beginning of 2020, as Covid raged across the world, and India – the world’s largest democracy went into a lockdown, the concept of work and home went through a drastic transformation. In no time, work began to get fully digitised as human movement screeched to a halt leaving Indians stuck indoors to control the spread of Covid-19.
Masked and socially distanced most of the working population which could work, network and perform digitally would dress up formally, waist up more often than not, sit in front of webcams and perform their official tasks but all within the confines of home.
Across India, the concept of Work from Home spread like wildfire even faster than the rest of the world as everyone switched to digital platforms to perform to retain their jobs by working from home. Why, at that time there was no other option available. You’d either perform or then…perish.
Even education departed from stoned schools and colleges and made its way into personal spaces and homes. Children had to sit before mobile phones even rubbing their eyes to wake up and attend class before teachers too taught from within ‘their’ homes. Partners, friends, workplace colleagues, employees and employers created workspaces within their domestic spaces to ‘work from home’ and digitally in order to keep Covid-19 at bay.
Human health and digital technology
The digital health technology world has something for everyone. Mobile medical apps and software support and assist healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical care providers, first responders, etc., in making decisions during health crisis and medical emergencies. Relying heavily on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, these applications have been a boon to the industry, revolutionising healthcare in general and human life, in particular.
And then, there are tools using digital health technology to help improve the ability of doctors and medical personnel. They go on to ensure medical care is provided accurately and on time, diagnosis is facilitated in a timely manner, overall quality of health and fitness is maintained.
Digital health technologies have been improving health care by employing software programming, information technology, sensor mechanisms, information collection and sharing, etc. The application of such technology is also wide and is in use mostly to maintaining general wellness of patients, maintaining fitness and health statistics for overall well being, etc.