Social networking: A monopoly hypnotic art?

As a former FB employee accused the social networking company of doing what tobacco companies used to do by making youngsters addicted to the lethal products, FB is hallucinating the youngsters now. Social networking has become a social disaster. That has made our youngsters, especially teenagers, trapped in inescapable psychic devastation.   

It seems Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates run the modern world. Often I feel they have dictatorially invaded every space of human activities and are trying further with a hunger to cut more. Monopoly is no less than a dictatorship. History has told us Hitler and Stalin tried to rule the world, breaking all frontiers.

All that Mark and Bill did decades ago gave no poor impression. I read the news that the FB founder apologised for stopping the world for some time. He realised what his company was contributing to the human world. First, I felt like crying. Soon, I felt laughing while thinking about the common sense of the media. I have no doubt it can sell anything, a product, a person, a dream and more. When something applies to entire humankind, media also remains a part of it.

But when money speaks, everyone keeps silent. On the night of 4th October 2021, when the social media king collapsed for six hours, our media was crying foul. It said the world stopped its functioning at midnight.

As the earth continued to move around Facebook and WhatsApp, in a short period, controlled the imaginary world of human beings. The world stopped for six hours. We can hardly think of living without social media, though it doesn’t have much role in the real world. What exactly are we drawing from social media? Is this platform giving any solution to the problems humans face? Isn’t this platform causing trouble for humankind? I will say the good information-sharing platform is giving further trouble to human beings than anything else

In Cloudflare engineers’ language, the FB became ash for some time while crores of people were online. FB disconnected with the internet. The problem was serious. We need to read this along with FB’s ex-staff Francis Haugen’s Senate testimony. She accused FB of what tobacco companies did by making youngsters addicted to the deadly product. Few hours before this incident, she found fault with this social media giant that controls all social media platforms. This is not the first time FB and related companies are facing serious allegations.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Facebook and is still investigating FB’s social networking monopoly. There is a possibility that they must withdraw their interest from some social networking ownership, which they acquired in recent years for building a monopoly position. Anyway, the verdict will not be in their favour. A few months ago, when WhatsApp declared its new privacy policy, many customers forcefully shifted to other similar platforms, which offer more privacy. FB suffered a setback. Earlier, it came up to share customers’ personal information with its parent company FB. That also drew controversies. Still, people continued to use the platform, because that was not bothering people of third world countries. They are least bothered to share their personal information with anyone. Most Indians, hence, continued to stay on the platform.

Mark is not alone in the monopoly game. The iPhone wants to control its elite customers. It is also coming up with a checking system in its devices. If there is any unwanted content in the device the system can verify and delete it. These companies are keen to maintain social decorum. In that name, they can sell users’ information in the market for your interest. While they do their business, we are busy sharing our new pictures through Instagram. Assents survey and mapping tool introduced by iPhone. These secrets, but naked truths, warn us to be more careful while using the device. You must know that someone is stalking, updating and verifying your personal information. What is strange for us is not strange

When Mark created a social media platform, he mentioned that he wanted to create a new and better world for people. He had a dream for each person to have 1000s of friends on the FB platform. At the same time, a human being cannot simultaneously stay connected with more than 150 people. FB helped overcome this natural limit.

He could build a wealthy world for himself and his family only after he started FB. That time he said his intention was not to make money. Later we saw the changes. Making money was the sole aim. Everything followed an investigation into his company’s monopoly practice. He would choose only the interest of himself and his company over the interests of people and the world. His company might have sold each one enjoying the social networking platform several times to many companies. He knows some laws are strict only in the US. In other parts of the world and for newcomers, monopoly is not a deterrence. Nothing deterred him from amassing wealth.

The Covid-19 has proved that we cannot live without being online. Indian internet business has seen a runaway success. IT business grew 7.5% last year. While many other sectors fell sharply, IT business rallied up. The next three years may see an annual average growth of 12.5%.

There seems to be no escape from addiction to mobile phones for this generation. We should have controlled our kids from the excessive use of phones before getting any education about online platforms. Now not even God knows where we will land. Companies like Israel’s Pegasus added to the destruction of the world. Still, the software engineers and chipmakers write new unsafe codes to control us. That reiterates our enslavement. Though technology makes everyone salve, the impoverished ones are relatively out of danger.

One thing is sure, FB will not continue as a social networking platform. It intends to create a fiction of the web. It is metaverse. A few months ago, Mark shared his dream project with his subordinates. While you are at home, you can visit your friends and relatives and pay a visit to your workplace and shopping mall. If this is not black magic or hypnotic art, you can imagine what is awaiting us. It may make the networking platform a metaverse giant. The users will have a different experience. They can reach a new world of imagination. The new platform will make you feel like you have reached a public place to participate in a dance or music program. It will lead to massive changes in the human brain and social life. However, it will also make a question mark on our real world. In future, we will not be in a position to identify what is real and reel. Someone’s mad idea can change our life completely. That may even eradicate the homo sapiens.

We have reason to worry about what is awaiting us. One thing is certain, we don’t have any control over our lives. Someone whom we do not know will control us. Still, we can’t do anything. When we can’t stop the tragedy, let us put up with the same.