Social Media Brings Out The Worst in Humans

Case 1:

On October 11, superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday, a fan posts on Facebook an old picture of Big B rehearsing the song “Mere Paas Aao..” from the 1979 hit ‘Mr Natwarlal’, the latter’s first foray into playback singing, with composer Rajesh Roshan, a baby Hrithik Roshan and others looking on, as his tribute to the most successful actor in Hindi film industry. Amidst the plethora of comments eulogising the ‘Millennium Star’ that follow, someone strikes an utterly discordant note with a malicious comment; “Bachchan se bada ghatiya insaan koi nahin. Ek number ka matlab parast, begairat insaan hai”, completely ‘against the run of play’ (as they say in cricket). Another person chimes in: “The most horrible singing voice of the music world!” One doesn’t quite know what really got the goat of this person. But soon enough, the discussion takes on communal overtones with another person responding to this completely unwarranted comment thus; “Agar ye song Amir Khan ya Salman Khan ne gaya hota to badhia hota, kyon?” (The person making the comment was Muslim). In no time at all, the interaction turns into a no-holds-barred outpouring of communal vitriol with both sides using words and terms that cannot be printed here.

Case 2:

On Dussehra day, presumably a day symbolising the ‘victory of good over evil’, a post on X about the brutal killing of Ramgopal Mishra, a 22-year old man in Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a group of Muslims angry over the man replacing a green flag atop a house with a saffron one, opens up the floodgates of communal passion and turns into a vicious slanging match between hard-line Hindus and Muslims spewing venom with generous use of the choicest invectives and abuses. Four days on, the diatribes continue with no signs of abating anytime soon.       

Case 3:

Three days later, the day senior leader Amar Satapathy announced he is ‘no more with the BJD’, a tongue-in-cheek comment about the ongoing desertions from the principal opposition party on Facebook provokes a virtual torrent of grossly tasteless, politically coloured reactions from those take great pride in singing “He Naveen Babu, Ame Tama fan”. Name calling and character assassination of those leaving the party that ruled the state for 24 years – and of course the man whose post started it in the first place - follow.

From cinema to cricket, from sports to culture, no field is spared as the self-appointed cyber warriors jump into the fray with their verbal swords, suitably sharpened for the occasion, ready to cut the other side into pieces. The most bitter fights, of course, are reserved for politics and religion. And when it is a combination of the two, god save the one who makes a case for reason and sanity. Hatred is the currency and malice the lingua franca in the ‘dog eat dog’ world of social media. Friends of decades turn into the worst kind of enemies because of differences of opinion on a matter. Those who want to keep their sanity intact frequently take a break from this ‘boxing ring’. But so irresistible is the urge to throw the hat into the ring that they soon return to join the ‘fun’. The vicarious pleasure in bashing people, institutions, icons or anything else – and getting bashed by others in return – has become such an obsession with most people that they simply cannot do without it. Even seemingly sane people fail to resist the temptation of hitting back hard when someone disparages or ridicules someone or something they hold dear. But it’s not always the case that someone gets worked up only when their idols are publicly humiliated. There are occasions when even praise for someone or something invites the wrath of those who hate whatever is being praised. One doesn’t even need to know the target of his/her ire in person to fire salvos at them. Complete strangers would come on board, ready with their poison-tinged barbs, to fight the ‘war’. That’s very nature of the beast called social media, which brings out the worst in human beings.

This columnist really envies those who have stayed out of the ‘ring’, whether out of ignorance or as a matter of deliberate policy, because it tells on your nerves and leads to sundry other physical and mental complications even when one doesn’t participate in the ‘match’. As a practicing journalist, the option of not being the on social media is simply not available to him, like it is for many others. So, the best one can do in the circumstances is to stay in the ring and resist the temptation to fight to the extent possible. And when it is not possible, bear it on chin as the price to pay for being on the mad mad world of social media.