Staying
awake with net!
There were number of occasions, when I spoke in favour
of using social media specially to the youth. To make my position strong, I would
often give the example of my own experience with social media. Years back, when
I was doing a year of pastoral experience in Ireland, I constantly used social
media to reach out to the youth. It was a very handy tool for me and it bore
many fruits. But recently, I had encountered an incident, which made me to
think the use of social media, special among the youngsters.
Changing
the profile picture of Facebook!
It was after repeated reminders and comments, finally
I decided to change the profile picture of my Facebook account. I had kept the
same picture for almost six years. It was around 10.00pm (in Italy) and 2.00am
(in Bangladesh) when I signed in to change the photo. Within 5 minutes, just
before signing out, I found there were more than 30 people who reacted to my
profile picture. Just out of curiosity, I checked the list of people who
reacted to my profile picture and to my great surprise, I found almost all of
them were youngsters and from Bangladesh. Naturally they were all students too!
I signed out and put off the lap-top. I thought of all
these youngsters who were 'awake' with net. Their parents must be peacefully sleeping
just in the next room, thinking their dear children were asleep. They must have
gone to bed with dreams for their children that one day their children would fulfil their dreams!
I was sad because I knew many of these youngsters
personally. I knew the dreams of their parents for them. I also knew that they
were not doing anything useful work on-line.
I am not very active on Facebook, forget about being
famous. I use it only for sending messages and avoid anything on screen. I
wonder if a ‘passive’ person like me gets 30 likes within five minutes at this
odd hour, what about the people who are more active!
It is very alarming to see many young boys and girls
wasting their precious time with social media when they are supposed to study
and sleep. At this age, they are supposed to have dream for their life and keep
trying to fulfil them. But on the contrary, they are destroying the dreams of their
parents, forget of having their own dreams for future!
Perhaps it is right time for parents, teachers, leaders,
elders who are peacefully sleeping, to get up and make sure our children stay
awake in fulfilling their dreams…
