Negative impacts of social media

[Sultan Mahmud Sujon]

Over the years, social media has somewhat made our views intolerant. The whole milieu of social media is wired in such a way that we happen to be surrounded by like-minded people and opinions. If we like one page, similar suggestions pop up on our homepage. If we like one type of status or follow a celebrity, similar suggestions follow and we comply by liking them and eventually we get wrapped up in a bubble made up of a homogeneous group.

Gradually, we are alienating people and views that we don’t like to agree with and in a way losing the ability of accommodating the views that ours differ with. The simple phenomenon of agreeing to disagree, which is an essential part of freedom of speech, is thus becoming extinct.

This is the precise reason for the knee-jerk reaction and collective intolerance towards political and social views that we don’t agree with. It is high time we straighten up our act and “react” more responsibly.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/letters/news/negative-impacts-social-media-1817725