Curbing the free speech

When IT has made India one of the fastest emerging economy in world market, the regulatory move against virtually free online media including blog sites and other social networking sites is a clear indication of the fact that the rotten politicians and bureaucrats in this country are trying to tighten the noose against unbridled free speech, primarily because the ongoing exposures of their corrupt practices in unconventional media like Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, etc., have attracted huge public attentions and reactions, which become a deterrent to their clandestine corrupt practices. In the recent Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption, the social media played a significant role by spreading the awareness across the world, and this became another jasmine revolution.

Now that politicians think the educated, IT-savvy citizens are well-informed and their collective free speech can bring down their supremacy in a society that they have legitimately exploited for decades, which furthermore won't be possible and this fear psychosis has triggered an authoritarian regime like situation to nip any future online revolution in the bud. This is a serious contempt of freedom of speech provisioned in a democracy. No matter how blasphemous or hateful be the views on an individual on any subject, that should be given a benefit of doubts in the ambit of “personal interpretation”, not as interpreted by a motley group of “pseudo-intellectual bureaucrats” who have continuously blocked the social innovations in this country.

Every time when a corruption news breaks out in this country, people blindly blame politicians without analyzing the length and breadth of the crime, but the time has come now to look beyond the lopsided view. The systemic corruption in India is a phenomenon dangerously propagated by the bureaucrats since independence. Their feudal attitude to keep every policy inherently flawed has stumped the progress of this country. If we have witnessed any social, economic or technological revolution, be it market liberalization, IT revolution, or mobile revolution, in this country, that has been possible just because of the sincere efforts of some good politicians, technocrats, and intellectuals. Though there are very few bureaucrats who have helped executing the policies with due diligence, the majority of this power block have continuously manipulated the system on their side, and the recent move on curbing the free speech in a democratic system is again their misadventure to prohibit public reactions, but this act of despot will never succeed. Controlling the internet framework across the world by any local government agency has never been successful, and this wild act of authoritarian governance will rather raise more conflicts in a working democracy.

Innocence on decline

The social trends are changing fast, and particularly in India, they are even faster. A decade before when the average age for first sexual encounter was hovering around 16-17 years, it has fallen sharply to 12 years now in the new decade of the millennium. Thanks to the omnipresent Internet, mobility, and social networking those in tandem are shaping the collective consciousness of Indian youth brigade and their lifestyle.

In this decade only, India has noticed the daredevil acts of MMS sharing for some bad reasons. Whether it's adventurous experiment with truth by two students of a reputed Delhi school or the recent video sharing by some students of a central university, the modus operandi has been quite similar – taking the sadistic pleasure out of somebody's misfortune and that too on the account of breach of trust. Trust has taken a back seat. If given a chance, no one would mind to trespass into somebody's private zone, prohibited by some disclaimer. Disclaimer is as affictitious as trust itself. In all these scenarios, technology has played a great role in venting the spirit of free expression because we believe in democracy.

Today's kids care a fig to the age-old dogmas carved out by a feudalistic society some centuries ago. Although there is no problem at this point, all dogmas cant be branded as feudalistic, some are even more progressive and forward-looking, even today. Of course, Kama Sutra is one of them. All rules and principles of love making established many centuries ago still work fine with the most modern social lifestyle or mindset. That's bit an exciting part of a feudal carving. We always search for some temptations in all our endeavours.

Everyone is on a move, an exciting and adventurous first flight that no one wants to miss at the susceptible formative years. Experience is not related to how long, rather how effective and exciting. The new measures of innocence is somewhat silent about the urge and indulgence because these two attributes drive the innocence now. For instance, almost all youths of India having internet connection possess a Facebook account. That's not bad even from any puritan perspective, but the larger point here is how this platform is being used to ventilate our passion for experiments.

The coming times would be more vibrant with innovative technologies. The media convergence in true sense wont be problem at all. When you encounter with some obscene acts in some parks or locality, don't forget that all those live acts are webcast or podcast with HD videos in one of the social media. The engagement of innocence with youth has started waning. Their maturing process is triggered by the social trends that include everything society, development, innovation, technology, and not the least the urge for coming to limelight, maybe that too through some bad accounts.

Social media on a joyride

Social media are synonymous with the adrenalin rush of today's youth brigade. How stirring in a cup of tea evolves into a massive twister can be learnt from the network effect of social media. Furthermore, the integration of Web with mobile platform has added more fervour to the social networking pulse. However, it has its pros and cons. The other day when an infamous MMS clip related to adventurous striptease of a colleague, recorded in a co-ed hostel of a reputed Indian university, took rounds over social networking sites and mobile phones, the critiques of technology preferred to pound over the carrier than questioning the tumultuous social trends that have evolved from the freedom of choice. Technology antagonists, in general, never understand the pain and efforts that have gone into the making of an innovative technology because neither they are part of the innovation tribe nor they have the mettle to understand the nuances, for that matter, anyone and everyone can wear the hat of a critique.

Well, though the context of social media is different here, the big picture is how effectively the social media can be used to increase the brand popularity, publicity, marketing, information sharing, and finally building a powerful virtual community that is more informed, intelligent, and ready to take the challenges of real life. A well-infomed virtual community is more powerful than an army of soldiers toiling along the border line of a nation.

For a start-up venture, the effective use of social media can increase awareness about the organization, build favourable perception about products and services, and help increase the customers base without even investing a lot.

Similarly, for social entrepreneurs social networking works as the most powerful tool to build consensus among netizens or social media users for a social cause. This is far more easier than sending thousands of emails and invitation letters to your audiences. Furthermore, it effectuates the objective of the mission in a fast and meaningful way.