EDITORIAL
Technology has given rise to powerful tools. However, with great power comes great responsibility and, as with all tools, care must be taken lest one injures another or even harms oneself.
As technology advances it has given its users greater control of their environment and increased their capabilities. One area that has seen an unprecedented dynamic growth is the social media sphere, which has exploded across the globe to bring messages, images and video to a potential billions of users, all at the touch of a button.
Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr to name a few, have exploded onto the scene, grabbing their share of global interest. One of the more recent innovations is the live-streaming feature on Facebook. This multi-billion dollar website, which has more than 1.2 billion users and is one of the leading social networks in the world, has provided the option for users to transmit video footage of themselves in real time to anyone whom they desire. This has led everyone – from leading business people, celebrities and high profile sports stars to the neighbours next door – to jump on the bandwagon sharing everything online, from the informative and inspiring to the mundane and depraved.
And no longer does one have to wait for access to a computer station, with the easy access of smartphones and a readily available communications network that includes wifi, potential users can be plugged in, in as much time as it takes to move one’s fingers.
However, as was noted above, social media is not always used to send positive messages. Here in Barbados there are constant “media bulletins” issued through Whatsapp for instance, which ultimately are revealed to be untruths. Likewise, malicious content has been shared via Facebook and Instagram. Sadly, some of this content has even escaped the social media sphere and entered the wider World Wide Web on sites like Youtube, where viewers are usually not restricted by those who post the content.
In society today, there is a sentiment that social media is for the young people and, though this group may comprise a large portion of the social media audience, that does not mean that the older population would not indulge on occasion, or themselves be the subject of someone else’s production. We have seen images where unsuspecting people have been exposed for all the world to see, without even their knowledge.
The world is travelling in the direction of being a more open place and there are people that are of the view that this openness is a positive because of a growing need for transparency; but where does one draw the line?
What becomes apparent, is that social media is not the problem, people are the problem. As with any tool, social media can be used to build up or break down. Truthful and positive information can be shared and untruths debunked, all on social media. In fact, this phenomenon has become so powerful that US President Donald Trump has elevated the Twitter sphere to a source for important political, economic and state news, leaving traditional powerhouses like CNN and Fox to follow Twitter for a guide to what newsworthy subject will take centre stage at the moment.
Therefore, social media can no longer be considered a fad or pastime, it is the new norm and a huge responsibility is being placed on members of the public to police themselves and others when publishing material. We must be careful that the same technology that builds us as a people does not become our undoing.