Using Facebook at all Events: Are We Aware?
Using Facebook at all Events: Are We Aware?
Tanjil Ahmed
Currently, Facebook is being used as a
great medium of social communication, entertainment, and a public open-access platform that has been an immense impact on individual lives, society, the
country as well as the world. Earlier, GeoCities (1994) and theGlobe.com
(1995) were initially used as social media sites in the world. However, on 4
February 2004, Facebook has brought a revolution in social media through its
journey. Before the journey of Facebook, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg did not think greatly
that Facebook would have gained such popularity.
Though today people enjoy several means
of social media like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, etc., Facebook has
gained the highest attention of people around the world as a social media. At
the moment, there are more than 2.6 billion Facebook users around the globe where
around 1 billion people use Instagram. Besides, only 330 million people use
Twitter, and approximately 760 million people use LinkedIn.
This statistic clearly demonstrates that
the people's attraction and attention in using Facebook. Since opening a Facebook account is
relatively easy and cost-free, most people use Facebook as a means of
entertainment and communication. Moreover, there are many positive aspects of
Facebook particularly positive impact on society such as raising people's
voices against any social disorder, corruption, and social inconsistencies,
etc. Besides, the social responsibilities of people towards the backward sections
have increased due to using Facebook. Similarly, many people use Facebook as an
online business platform. Such subjects are good signs of using Facebook.
In this context, Facebook users are
growing greatly in the world. From children to the elderly, all are now giving
priority to use Facebook as a greater source of entertainment and social media.
Though Facebook provides several personal and social benefits to the users, do
we aware of using Facebook? Or, do we aware of taking and sharing information while
using Facebook?
It is a matter of sorrow that people are
not conscious about using Facebook. Experts think that most people don't know
the ethics and norms of using Facebook. Moreover, a large part of Facebook
users has very poor knowledge of cybersecurity, information hack,
cyberbullying, even cybercrime that is creating a severe impact on social lives.
It is true that Facebook is being
currently used as a watchdog of society as well as used as a social platform
for assessing people’s perceptions on a specific issue, but in most cases,
people do not feel the need to verify when sharing information. From this point
of view, in every moment rumors are spreading in our society, country, and in
the world in all highlighting issues. Who is responsible for such rumors? And
whom are concerned for such rumors? The answer is very simple-users and
targeted individuals, or institutions.
Presently, about 35.4 million people use
Facebook in Bangladesh which is 20.9% of its total population. Among them, a great portion is the young
generation of the country. There is no doubt that using the internet, Facebook,
and other IT tools are a great sign of digitalization but do we follow ethics,
norms, and values while taking the benefits of the internet as well as
Facebook?
A survey has found that about 57 percent
of women have to face online harassment when using Facebook! Currently,
spreading rumors through using Facebook has become a major concern and threat
for Bangladesh. Already different acts of violence have occurred in Bangladesh
through Facebook post such as the Padma bridge rumor (human heads and blood are
requisite to build the Padma Bridge), the Burhanuddin attack case (four people
were killed and more than a hundred others injured on October 20, 2019), and Abrar
Fahim killing issues, etc. Besides, on the basis of the Facebook posts,
different unpleasant situations have already occurred in different parts of the
countries like Ramu violence, Nasirnagar violence, Comilla violence, and Pabna
violence, etc. which are really unexpected.
Additionally, due to the failure of
tracking fake Facebook users, fraud activities by using Facebook have become a
common scenario in Bangladesh. Whereas, in most cases, the victims are teenagers’
girls, or women who use Facebook. In this regard, information hackers target
such groups of people who have very limited knowledge of cybersecurity. As a
result, users’ personal privacy falls in threat due to inexperience and
ignorance while using Facebook.
Therefore, there are no alternatives to
raise users’ awareness while using Facebook particularly trusting and sharing
information. In addition, primary education about Internet Technology (IT)
should be made compulsory to mitigate the unexpected threat of social media
(Facebook). At the same time, user’s knowledge about cybersecurity threats,
personal information safety and security and hackers' activity should be
enhanced so that they can determine the positive and negative aspects of using
Facebook and realize its consequences.
Particularly, the government should
rethink and formulate precise principles to suspend the fake Facebook accounts.
In this regard, exemplary punishment should ensure against such fake Facebook
users' by the effective law enforcement authority so that every legitimate
user’ can use Facebook and other social media sites independently and smoothly.
The author is a student of dept. of Public Administration & Governance Studies, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh.
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