 Today we are very happy to have with us Professor K. V. Nagraj, head of the Department of Mass Communication, Assam University, Siltia. Sir, welcome to the program. Thank you. So today we are going to discuss about the growth of social media as a means of communication, its implication in society, its growing importance. Sir, basically social media is an upcoming kind of media in society. We have seen that especially youngsters are hooked on to different social and political sides. So do you think that it's a kind of medium through which we can communicate with each other, we can translate our knowledge and information in the society through this medium? Yes, you know the popularity of social media is quite amazing. You know it all started with the emergence of the Twitter, the Facebook and the media have become more and more interactive, personal and amazingly global. Anybody in any part of the world can communicate with any other person and exchange ideas and information. And the way in which it is spreading is also quite phenomenal. What other media could not do for decades, I think the social media have been able to do. And recent events are a very fine example of how social media can change the whole landscape the political landscape and the cultural landscape of the world. And when the Mumbai city was attacked by terrorists a few years ago, it was the Twitter which gave the latest information to the people. And if you take the Arab Spring and what has happened in most of the Middle Eastern countries recently including Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, Yemen and Egypt, you will find how things are becoming totally different. And believe me it is the voice of the people and people are able to communicate beyond frontiers and it is becoming such a power no dictator, no government can withstand the power of the social media. And another fine example which I can give you is the latest movement against corruption in India. The group of Anna Hazare which you normally call as Team Anna. Team Anna has managed the social media so effectively it has brought the Union government to its knees in accepting the demand of Anna. You can imagine how in the next few years this social media will spread and will make things more and more transparent, more reachable all over the world. In fact I find it as one of the offshoots of globalization. Globalization is responsible for it, at the same time social media is also enabling globalization. People from different cultures, different mindsets, different political systems, they are coming together for certain causes, right or wrong, history will speak about it but what is happening is quite amazing. Can you imagine again children of six years of age in metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and other places having their own Facebook accounts and communicating with each other. If you see how the culture of the people is also changing it is quite phenomenal but I am also a little bit worried about the negative aspects. The positive aspect is it brings people together, nations together, cultures together, ideologies together and also makes everything democratic. On the other hand social media can also become a tool to propagate anarchy in the world. The established institutions can crumble. It is not only the political institution I am talking of, it can be even a social institution. See marriage is an institution, family is an institution. If all these institutions crumble in the face of the onslaught by the social media, if our cultures get hybridized, if our institutions become weak and if our value system undergoes a change, if not for good but for worse then I can't imagine how the world would be like and the second one is it should not become narcotic in its effect. People are so much hooked up today with social media I think 50% of their quality time people are spending on communicating and are they not wasting their time only on communicating on frivolous issues? There are better things to do in life I think at some point of time we have to consider both the plus and the minus points of the effects of social media. I am really worried about one aspect that is culture. See I believe in having different cultures to coexist in the world and in their own original shape. The problem now is we are getting hybridized and hybrid culture is making inroads and you know there is no variety in culture. There will be a monotonous culture if there is going to be only one single culture and that's where I am really worried about the social media and its impact particularly the young people are hooked to it. There is one particular drawback as far as I have seen especially youngsters I am talking about they go on a spree making friends some unknown friends so the end result is sometimes it's been misused they upload their photos, their personal photos and someone misused them and they crop it, edit it and paste it in a very vulgar way. Ultimately you know it's kind of like impinging upon one's privacy. That is true, that is true. It is not only privacy you know it is also the individual status, the individual reputation and an individual's right to have a decent life and when it is attacked, when people are enticed particularly children and young ladies when they are enticed by some unscrupulous elements sometimes the other way is also true some ladies also can use it to entice some people who are rich and wealthy and what happens is ultimately that's what I said our social system will crumble, the society will crumble and we will be moving towards a state of affairs where social anarchy will be in the order of the day. That's what the personal touch is declining we have become too materialistic, too technology dependent so the very fabric of communication which we believe is person to person communication, meeting person to that is declining I have seen. Yes, that is true but it has its own advantages also the best thing that can happen is the democratization of communication and everybody comes to know of what is happening in a particular place and apart from the negative aspects you have to appreciate the positive aspects also but what happens is when positive aspects are being overridden by negative aspects you will start worrying so there should be what I call as a Lakshman Rekha for everything and people should be educated as to the good and the bad effects of social media and here I talk about media literacy media literacy is very important because it makes people scrutinize the role of the media its positive effects, its negative effects and also it prescribes a definite role for the media in any society look we are not a developed society we are a developing society and there are many problems which we have to encounter which we have to solve and unlike the developed countries our problem is of education, employment we don't have that kind of time to spare on frivolous issues which normally the people in the developed countries indulge in their leisure time and if we get hooked to social media all the 24 hours it is not good for the economic health of the nation as well as the cultural health of the nation so that's why I believe that departments of mass communication in several universities should take to media literacy campaigns and start educating people not only people who study mass communication but the general public as a whole and tell them look these are the positive aspects these are the negative points it is for you to decide and all of us have a kind of responsibility towards the society and we call it as social responsibility and I believe that as students and teachers of media we have to inculcate this media literacy approach among the general public and make them understand what the media are doing or not doing it has got both sides and if you start scrutinizing and that is the first phase of education and you educate them and they will become sincere and serious students of not only mass communication but also of public affairs that is what I believe in so sir thank you very much for our discussion on social media it was really informative as well as entertaining also so dear learners here we come to the end of our program thank you thank you very much