 I am Shivani and I welcome you to this edition of School of Thought. As Greek philosopher Aristotle rightly said that man is a social animal. Well, that statement is being said and heard for ages now, but what's changed over the time is the dimensions of being social. In today's time, being social doesn't just mean visiting an old relative or a friend, but being connected over social media. Internet has provided us countless options now to connect and chat with friends and family and be socially active. But don't you think that this digital well-being is somewhere hampering our physical social behavior? Well, to ponder upon this thought, we have with us today our bright young minds who will debate about whether social media is making you social or not so social. So without much ado, let's begin this episode of School of Thought. We have two teams with us, one who believes social media is good and as a team are called the virtual world and the other that believes social media is not so social and they call themselves the real world. So I request first the virtual world to voice up their opinion. Hi, I'm Advika Harisukh. So there are approximately 4.8 billion social media users out of which 59.9% of them represent the global population. So having a platform where people share their likes and views not only help like-minded people from communities, learn about other cultures, but also help introverted people come out of their shells. So we recently just overcame the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic. So that affiliation was made possible through social media because we were able to connect with each other. We were able to share information and even help others donate. So it helped people mentally as well because we were not totally isolated. So while the world was going through such a traumatic experience, we were able to connect with each other. There were platforms like LinkedIn which helped people get job opportunities and apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, they helped promote small businesses. So with kids at home, it would have been impossible to continue our schooling. But with the help of Zoom meetings, Skype, Teams, etc., we were able to connect and continue our education. Yes, I believe that sometimes social media can be much, but there are so many more times where they can help us more than we realize. So in my opinion, the good overcomes the bad more. Introverted people are coming out of their shells, right? But if you're introducing social media, even younger ages are giving it to children, children have access to their social media accounts. The feelings of envy, there's jealousy, there's formal, there's loneliness and there's depression. That's coming at such a young age and that's not right. What is your take on that? Because he said good is overcoming the bad and there's so much bad, it's so much negative. But what about the good? See, I feel like having emotions or feeling something is better than just getting depressed and getting isolated. See, I feel like depressed is too much of a big word to say but loneliness, in my opinion, is more bad than not feeling emotions. So through social media, people who are very shy and they're not able to communicate with others, they have a very much difficulty. I feel it is more easier to connect through social media than face-to-face interactions because there are so many times during face-to-face interactions, we get shy and we want to say something, but then we realize they might think that I'm weird or that I'm not up to their mark or something. So in my opinion, through social media, even disabled people are able to communicate with each other. So also, when you made a point about children using social media, I think it's not social media as far. I think it's not proper, you know, there's a lot that goes into it. There's a family dynamic, there's the parenting and there's so much more that goes into a child's psyche. You can't just blame all of their problems on social media. You mentioned a point where you said social media helped the students using online classes, but one of the leading reasons why students had lower attendance in online classes was social media. What are your opinions on that? But see, if there was no social media, there would have been no schooling whatsoever because during the pandemic time, it was literally not possible for others to go out of their house only. So I feel like something is better than nothing if you think about it. Right? So because of social media, we weren't able to see the pandemic continue for almost two years. So those two years of education, we would have wasted if it hadn't been for social media. Moreover, I mean, we've all heard of the slogan, all work and no play, it's Jack and dull boy, right? So there has to be a balance maintained. If you continuously study even during the pandemic, as you said, if you continuously studied and did not talk to your friends anyhow, how would that be a true balance? There was some kind of social interaction needed. And that was what social media provided in the pandemic. See, I personally, from my personal experience, I can say that not because of social media, I am still the person that I am because without social media, I would have been lonely and I would have been a share of the person that I am today. All work and no play makes Jack and dull boy. That is true. But when we were attending online classes, I think all of us can admit to slopping off a little. So social media... Are you saying you don't know that in school? There is no bunking whatsoever? No, but bunking, that is another thing. Because if we are bunking, then we are actually forming connections with the people. I am not saying that we are sending only connections with people in social media. What he means is that since he is talking about slopping away from online classes, he is not saying bunking is good. Right now we are not considering the part of bunking. What we are considering is social media right now. Once he says that missing online classes is bad, that doesn't mean he is promoting bunking. He also means that bunking is bad. But he is also talking about how social media can lead to lag of online classes. I mean, don't you all admit that during the online classes, when the teacher used to be like, are you there? Are you there? We are still busy in our own Instagram or whatever we are doing. But then what about... What is your alternative? What is your take on that? So do you feel that there should have been no online classes? Because of that, we would have missed two years of our whole lives. And I mean, that would have been too much of a waste. I feel like. Would you rather they don't go to school at all or they go to school at least a few times? But that was not possible. Exactly. What our aim today is not telling people to stop using social media. It's about creating awareness on how it can affect. It's about creating awareness to the parents, to the students, to the children, to the teachers and everybody else. We do not mean that you should stop using social media. I myself use social media. But I know when to do and when not to. Similarly, here, what our point is... So you have a balance, right? That is the problem. But it depends on the person. And what the majority of students could not do during lockdown was create a balance between social media and social media. But that is not a personal choice. How many of us here had 100% attendance during online classes? No one because that is simply not possible. Exactly. I have 78 out of 78 classes. But that's on you. This is personal experience, it's subjective. Just because you attended most of your classes doesn't mean that I wouldn't mind, right? You should attend yours. But it's not always the question of like, I did this and they did not. It's above what I have done is something better than what others did and others should also do it. I am trying to promote what I did. I am trying to educate others what is right. People might have been utilizing their time better than you attending classes. Maybe they were attending something more important. See, I feel like there are both good and negative impacts to social media, right? So that is what we are discussing today. But we can't just say that what you think is good is good for everybody. So it's all other people's opinions and their thoughts and views on their topic that make that topic what it is. I mean, for them it might be a bad thing but for you it might be a good thing, right? So there are subjects, this is as she said already, it's a subjective topic. So we can't really say that what is good for you is good for everybody. I mean, sure you should promote it. What do you think like social media was the main distraction? I mean, we all would admit this, that we all are 11th grade, right? So in my grade, we have missed and we were distracted by the social media and we are struggling because of that now. We have to go back to what she said, every coin has two sides, right? But the side of social that you choose to be on is in your own hands. I am in 9th grade, like I have seen many of my colleagues and my classmates constantly on social media whenever we go out as friends and like, you know, like a party together. Like we are not going like seeing things and buying things we are actually scrolling to our phones and like showing us our memes and everything. Are you guys good friends or is it just like recently met? Like it's every friendship like I have and like everybody has. So that is a lack of familiarity? That is a lack of familiarity and also... It's because of social media that we are like... No, when I was my friend, I wouldn't touch my phone. I forget it exists. Exactly. Sorry to say but like in our new generation, not the old generation. No, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. So the social media has me throughout like since we were kids. Now like, is social media like part of our life? So that was wrong to introduce social media as a child. When you were a child, we don't support giving a social media to a child. So children should not attend online classes? Sorry? Children should not attend online classes? No, the necessity. Exactly. See, when we were in the pandemic, then there was no other alternative other than to attend online classes. Right now, you don't need to have online classes unless it's an absolute necessity. So offline classes and online classes are very separate issues. Okay, so basically nowadays, a majority of youngsters are so indulged in social media that they have no time left with real-time interactions. I mean, they're the youngsters who are supposed to lead our country but nowadays, they pay so much attention to the trends in social media that they're addicted to it. What's your say on that? I have a question. You say that they're supposed to lead the country but if they're just living a real-world life, they're interacting with a very small circle. Like at max, you can interact with your entire school. Like if you have that level of social capacity but with social media, you get to know everything that's happening in your entire country which makes you capable of being a leader because you know what's going on. Exactly. It helps bring so much of awareness about topics which you didn't know earlier. You know, things like which were out of your comfort zone, things which you normally never know about, normally are never interested about but somehow through social media, you maybe talk to someone who has a different opinion or you read something which has popped up on your Instagram and you see that, okay, this is something which I didn't know previously but now I do know it and it has helped broaden my horizon and provide a more holistic view to a certain topics in life. Yeah, it has always helped build global relationships. You see, most political leaders have the social media platform to advocate for what they have done and that way it's built so many more relationships and it would, by just a person-to-person communication. I would like to speak regarding a topic. Most of the leaders do not have their social media account. They are handled by their peers. But they have never, they have never gone into the social media. How do you know that is the case? That is the case with everybody, like even the celebrities who are the social media they are handled by their peers in general. They have a platform, their work is being showcased on social media we are aware of what they are doing, we are aware of all the attributes they are including. How do you know any of that is true? Because we can see real-world impacts. How do you know that is actually their work, not just showcase? Nobody knows that at the end of the day, no doubt. But what we do know is what we work with. We can't think of the hypothetical situation that, okay, maybe what if? We don't work on what ifs, we work on what we do. Yeah, I could make up a scenario and tell you. How could you confirm it and either I did that? You guys are the real world. What is better is not trust. If I tweet that I have done this work or some other person looks at me doing something which is more trustable about it to you. Is it that tweet that I did or is it the physical one? But you can't be, I'm sorry. Sir, go ahead. No, it's the same point. I think we both are trying to say that you can't really see about everyone else is doing in the real world. However, in the virtual world, you can see that there are so many people having different opinions, doing different things and you have that access to information most importantly. See, virtual world is helping you, see what you do in the real world. The virtual world is helping others to make the point reach other people. Like to go more broader population, right? So we are not saying that not everything on social media is real. When people post on Instagram or Twitter or any of the social platforms, they face hatred and trolls and that ultimately questions on their own social confidence and work. Do you think that people don't get bullied in their life? It's easier. She's saying that trolling is bad, she's not saying ragging is good. What we are talking about right now is only on social media. You cannot do ragging. What we're trying to say is that, are you trying to say that ragging does not happen in real life? I said physical ragging is not possible on social media, right? That's something different. That comes in the cyber bullying. What we're trying to say is that there's like two sides of the coin on like both sides in the real world and in the virtual world. There's like bullying on social media but there's worse bullying in the real world as well. What would you rather like someone punches you in the face or someone says something mean to you on the internet? I would do none of those. It's not, if I say that... Do you prefer to not interact socially at all? No, listen to me. When I say that I do not accept cyber bullying, I do not mean that I accept physical abuse. I do not say that I accept physical ragging. If I'm against physical ragging, that means I'm also against cyber bullying. It's not that I have to choose in one of them. That is the ideal world. We wish we could live in such a world. I wish that I could be on social media where nobody talks rude to me. I wish I could go into the class and no one criticizes me on anything. But that is not what happens in real life. It's not your choice to face it but it's your choice to be against it or stand for it. When I say I'm against both of them, it does not mean that if I'm facing physical ragging, I'm okay with it. Or if I'm facing cyber bullying, I'm okay with it. I'll stand against in both the ways, right? If I'm saying ragging is bad, I'm also saying that cyber bullying is bad. And you have to make up points how I can counterfeit that. It's okay. It's about your mental training. When you choose to use a social media platform, you have to create a mindset and then go on it. You can't just be blaming everyone that they trolled me or they did something to me. You have to be ready for that. You can take action. The social media platform provides you with action. You can report, you can block. You can complain about it. Cyber bullying does a lot of harm in mind. So that's the point. If you're choosing to use social media, then you have to mentally train yourself. You have to face something. You don't have a choice. It's not like we're imposing it on you. It's like you have to use it. You're using it because you want to. So if it has side effects, you face them. You don't have a choice to report or block someone in real life. You simply can't do that. You can issue a restraining order but that has a really complicated procedure. But on social media, there's just so many things you can do. There are cyber bullying laws. There's just so many people you can consult about this. You have so much more freedom of choice in social media that you just cannot... If you've ever been cyber bullied, it's like a once in a lifetime case. Or if you're unlucky enough, twice in a lifetime. But you can't just black out the entire good part of social media and say that it's bad because I got bullied. Someone called me an ugly name or something. Even if you get bullied once, you can complain and then you learn. It's not repetitive. If it once happened, you learn through it and you know what not to do. But it feels like if this happens in person, you become a different person. Because you go through that experience. So one has to say that you don't go through that experience in an online platform. You can take precautions now. If someone's calling me name, I have the choice to delete the app. I have the choice to put my phone away. In real life, when I'm bullying my classroom, what am I supposed to do? Then you stand up for your social media. You can stand up for it. You can stand up for social media also. We can stand up there for social media. Let him make his point. As you said that if you're getting cyber bullied, we have options. Yes, I'll tell you the option, delete social media. That's not really the only option. You just mentioned you have an option to delete the app. That's the exact message. That is your option. Social media is subjective. It is your choice. No one's forcing you to do social media. Sometimes you have to connect with friends. I joined social media because my friends were on it. I feel marginalized. They are not including me in their talks. So we have to join. So there is. It's just pure social media. Exactly. And also, our aim today is not telling people to use social media or to not use it. What our aim is to tell people what are the pros and cons of the social media. That's not a debate. That's a discussion. It's a very real-world scenario. We're all going to go to college soon. If you might go abroad to the US, UK, Canada, or maybe some other city other than Delhi, for example. How do you think that if you don't have social media, how will you connect and keep those relationships with your friends, parents, relatives, teachers in life? How will you look into your past life and which is also your current life in a certain sense because so many of your memories are with those people. So how do you feel you can keep that connection in life if there's no social media? We are not saying that we have to quit social media. We are saying that they have studied National Library of Medicine in 2023 for the US government. They found that people maintaining the relationship on social media feel lonelier than those doing real life. We are not saying that they should completely leave social media. To add to his point, I'll say there's a term called escape route. So don't you think social media gives you that escape route? Exactly. Instead of opening up more, you go into that shared zone of yours. So for example, say for introverted people, it's difficult for them to communicate face to face. See, I was once an introverted person and during the lockdown, even I became a very closed off person. So after the lockdown, the lockdown was put down and we were allowed to go to school again. So I felt very strange because the people who I thought were my friends, it was very awkward for me that situation was making me have social anxiety as well. So I feel it through social media because there were just a few like one or two people who I was talking to because I talked to them through social media for the two years. Along with that, there are so many introverted people who just need a little push to come out of their shells. And most of the time, it's not really much possible to interact that much in face to face than to open up in social media. But they can't avoid that, dear. They can't avoid it. What we're trying to say? Wait one second. Social media provides you a platform. If you want to use that platform, it's on you. No one's forcing you to do it. Even if there is pressure. Even if there is pressure, it's your choice. It's just a platform. You're not forcing you. Exactly. There is no one physically forcing you to do it. If you don't want to be isolated, then go into pressure and get into something that's more interactive. So you're focusing on the possible detrimental effects here. So then they're friend circles. I'm sorry to say. I'm sorry. It is a very lovely concept. You have a shit that is a part of it. After the lockdown, you felt that anxiety in talking to somebody. Rather, you would have had a dear time conversation. But you couldn't have had that conversation. People got too used to texting each other. She felt that way because she did not text people. Social media has made people more introvert. You guys are looking at a world that never existed. Like you gave an example of yourself that before the lockdown, you were an introverted person. Social media made you extroverted. That's a very good thing. I really appreciated that you made good use of it. But that's your personal experience. I have seen people, very good speakers, very extroverted people, becoming huge introverts after lockdown just because they felt... You said that social media had connected more people. They felt left over because they do not... Talking in person and talking on text is completely different. People who use too much social media forgot how to talk to in person. I feel like social media, from an introverted person to becoming someone who is slightly extroverted, I feel that social media provided a platform for me to take the first step. For me, just talking to someone other than one of my family members, it was a big deal. And after I started talking to them, I feel like after I've been providing that platform, when I started slowly, I was able to talk to people face to face as well. So I feel that social media just provides the first platform for you to take that step. And after that, it's about how you take the effects of social... Everything as a negative consequence and a positive consequence. So it's not about how there is no such thing in the whole world that could have just positive effects. Yeah, but the negative effects are too much overweighing the positive effects. That's why we are standing in... Social media is making... Look, that's your opinion. I personally believe that social media's positive impacts are significant and multifaceted. And again, we've mentioned it a couple of times, social media is subjective. Okay, you talked about anxiety. Don't you believe that there are a lot of health issues that people are facing because of social media? Exactly, because you said like, we're going to talk to our friends to sort of come out of that shell of being introverted. So first of all, I would like to rebut that because you said that social media is a platform that gives us a sort of... How do you say that? It gives us an ability to come out of that shell of being introverted. But isn't that actually... Isn't it easier for an introverted person to stay on social media to prioritize chatting instead of talking? So if we take calls, for example, calls can also be regarded as real-world conversations. Because let's say me and you, let's say right now, this was happening on text. It would be way more different than it is happening right now, but even on a call. Because on a call, we are ourselves. But when we are texting, we are hidden behind a screen. So I think in reality it's not us that's texting. I think you're confusing social media with texting. It's not just like your typing the message and you're sending it. You're like sharing videos, you're doing calls, you can call on Instagram. You can video call on Instagram. There is just so much scope to social media. But how much calling actually happens? I personally call very frequently. Again, subjective. Okay, she wants to make a point here. Okay, what about the issues? The health issues with social media making? I mean, we all are so indulgent that we, for example, when we are done with our studying for an hour, we pick up our phone and we're like, okay, we'll see this for five minutes. And the time passes and passes and we never know how it gets took two hours. And also we escape our sleep so that we sleep late. It's about the control and the balance that you have. That's what we're not able to make. So it's leading to a lot of problems. It's not social media we should blame for. I mean, if you watch TV for two hours, then you can't blame social media for this. For example, sometimes I'm taking a break. I'll go play the piano, the guitar. And I'll say, oh, 10 minutes. And it's like suddenly two hours. It's not social media here. It's an instrument. Also, social media has a lot of opportunities to grow your health in as well. So you can watch fitness, influencers and stuff, which I agree, there is a bad side to them. A lot of them motivate you to, like, better yourself by going to the gym and adopting health. What about the stress the influencers are facing? Influencers are supposed to post regularly to maintain their followers. So they're stressing about what content they should post or how people will react. See, it's their choice. See, but it's their support. It's our mutual support. The influencer, the followers. If they're following someone, then what if those followers don't support? The influencers will always be under pressure to post something every day. How you said that we can follow fitness influencers. But most of the time, fitness influencers aren't actually what they seem. For example, I'm taking a recent example, live a king. So he told the entire world that he's natural. But in the end, he was full of steroids. And that gave him pressure. But again, there are people like Ankit Dhan, who are actual influencers. Then you cannot differentiate between them. So I would just like to highlight upon one last point. This year's G20 Summit's motto was Vasudev Kutumbukam. One world, one family, one future. Essentially, the world is our family. And social media directly embraces this idea by motivating more and more people to feel united. Thus helping in the process of nation building and also feeling of pride among citizens of our country. To that, I would like to add that social media is a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's a long-term gain. Ultimately, it's not about social media making us less sociable. It's about how we choose to manage our time. And if you use mindfully, it can actually help us connect to communities first with collaboration and strengthening our bonds. You know... Okay, what about the... Yeah, go ahead, please go ahead. You know, social media is a boon. It's a sign of the times. You just cannot ignore it. It allows for more user engagement for people to share their opinions and meet a broader audience. It gives them the choice to connect. It allows for globalization. There's campaigning like the Me Too movement almost entirely online. It gives people something to relate with each other like the Draw My Life trend, which was very popular. And, you know, online and offline, it's just your choice. They're both in your line. So, as she said, Vasudev Kirtan Maka. Okay, guys, real world. We've got a very important point. It's not just our mental health. It's not just our physical health. It's also our private information that's at stake, right? Connect it on open platform and just to click up a button and you can access anybody's information. That's private. Well, it's your choice to post. Right, so now we're looking at the final comments here. So, maybe you can make that point and give your final comments. We have done with the virtual and now it's your turn to keep the final comments here. I would just like to conclude by saying that we're not far away from the time when this comment is saying that man is a social animal. We'll change to man is an anti-social animal. And that's very true in this generation at least. Okay. Anybody else wants to make a comment? I would like to end my words by saying that there's a book, which is iGen. It mentions that by the next decade, the youngsters of our world will know the right emoticon for a situation but not the right facial expression. And also when we're on social media and we are inherently procrastinating. It is the anger we develop within ourselves because of procrastinating that makes us anti-social, lethargic and hostile. So humans, which I think Aristotle said, is a social animal. Exactly. Becomes lethargic, hostile and anti-social. So is that not true that because of the consequences of social media, humans are becoming anti-social? Good. All I want to say, as too much chocolate is bad, so is too much time on social media. Studies show that from Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania, we have to limit our social time. So we will engage more. It's better for our mental health. It will help us to reduce depression, loneliness and things. In the digital age, the negative impacts on social media on human connections, like academic performances, health issues, and other things are clear. But it's crucial for individuals to recognize the drawbacks and take action against it. I would like to mark the end of this conversation by a saying by my dad. That's great. You try to spend the amount of time you spend on social media playing on a playground and you already realize how beautiful life is. That's great on that note. Well, this was a great show and to sum it all up, I would say that being social is important, whether it's over social media or in physical world, you know. But at the same time, making a balance of the two is also in our own hands. It is our responsibility to make sure that while tweeting or posting a picture online, we do not forget the rest of the world around us. So on that note, I'll take your leave for now, but we'll be back with some more of such topics and youngsters in the next edition of School of Thought. Until then, keep watching for the space. Namaskar.