The Key-board Warriors

What divides us?

Why we love or hate someone?

Why does the human mind act the way it is?

We are made up what we experience in our life. But, have so many of us experienced so much negativity that reflects nowadays on social media.
Nowadays most of the Indian has access to the internet and spends a large part of day surfing, scrolling through different Social Medias be it Facebook, Twitter or Whatsapp. Initially, all these platforms used to be medium to connect, conversate and interact but with friends, family and other acquaintances as well as to share our ideas and knowledge.

But slowly these platforms have become virtual battlefields where people fight tooth and nail on the false propaganda spread by political parties and their allies. The extent up to which we go to name and shame each other has no bounds. Victory in such battles may give us an ephemeral satisfaction but never serves any greater purpose other than spreading the propaganda of brainwashing the current generation.

In college, I had a diverse friend circle with friends from almost every part of our country. We used to spend so much of time together but I never felt we were different. Everyone had a diverse opinion but I never saw a hint of negativity, violence or hate towards any ideology, caste, state or religion.

One of the key features of democracy is freedom of speech and expression. We all have rights to express our opinion whatsoever it may be without hurting sentiments of others. Debate, discussion and Constructive criticism are methods to improve not just society but every institution be it educational, financial or legal.

But, Social media has become a platform where a biased image is created to show that whoever does not follow a specific ideology are against righteousness. Irrespective of any side chosen, we are still part of this eternal mess which keeps on flourishing by the fuel of sentiments.

I have seen people fighting on Facebook based on religion giving factless and baseless logics and memes, on the basis ideologies such as Leftist, Rightist or Marxist by using images of great scholars and revolutionaries about which they do not have an iota of knowledge. I have seen people fighting brutally using abusive language in the comment box of articles link posted on the Facebook page, many times just by reading the TITLE of the article without actually going through its content.

After experiencing all this it is very apt to coin a term "IKA" ie INDIAN KEYBOARD ARMY where anybody with a working internet can join it and start fighting blindly with anybody who hurts your false ego and lack of knowledge. Amount energy people spend, the ease with which they turn violent as well as abusive, is extraordinary showing the lack patience, humility and respect towards the online platform where one can easily humiliate anyone and runaway anytime.

The era of digital world where the internet has brought everything and everyone in reach of common beings has given immense power to society at large where it is easy to judge and criticise anyone. Though feedback and criticism is an integral part of improving our nation, it should not turn into a weapon of vengeance or spewing the venom for targeting a few or anyone to satisfy our ego or any false propaganda.

The true character of Democracy and Society comes out when equal rights, as well as responsibilities, are distributed to everyone. Social media is one such platform where everyone has equal rights to judge and criticise at their disposal. Hence, naturally, it becomes our responsibility to exercise the constraint while using Social Media to preserve and progress its right purpose.