After a long gap, this scribe one evening a couple of days back logged in to his Facebook account. Nearly a year ago, the page would remain filled with harmless statuses. Some posts contained wit as well as innocent humour; while many account-holders would remain busy with sharing scholarly information. Those who are romantic by nature were adept at taking their Facebook friends to the utopian worlds. They were filled with dreams, the longing to see a society free of injustices, cruelties and corruption. Many may not have liked all their simplistic observations. This used to spark arguments and counter-arguments which would go on for a long time. In short, the Facebook account-holders were used to finding themselves amid a vibrant and thought-provoking world. On the other hand, many budding writers would be found posting their freshly written poetry and prose for their online friends. The nature of feedbacks was mixed.
As part of a general scenario, in the early days there was a mélange of postings and photos related to the account-holders' personal lives. They would like to share those with their Facebook friends. The photographs ranged from a married couple's newborn first child, an old black-and-white snap of one's honeymoon on the beach, a yellowish group photo of old friends, some of whom are long dead, some untraced, while a few others living hale and hearty and active on the same page.
To the disgust of many, the open statuses remain filled with provocative and, at times, highly annoying subjects. They range from avoidable and controversial socio-political topics. Others' private lives are also not spared. These subjects hardly failed to spark brief spells of fracas. With the joining of new members on the page, the tiffs deteriorated into quarrels in print. Most of these heated exchanges remain limited to the statuses written in Bangla Ovro type. A few, not expert in Ovro, use English. Their emotional outbursts remain mostly inaccessible to many. The replies mainly come from the English-knowing persons. A few also use a Bangla written in English characters. Lately, it's amazing to find a lot of senior and elderly persons becoming active on the Facebook. If a debate or controversy shows signs of going out of control, the seniors intervene to bring peace among the quarrelling people.
A section of young women and men are always free, frank and bold. It is with this profile they would love to introduce themselves to the Facebook screen. Their forthrightness speaks of a typical honesty --- and something lovable and admiring about it; this was a Facebook reality not long ago. The youths did not hesitate to call a spade a spade. These virtues do not appear to be on the way out. In statuses one would find people who do not mince words while commenting on a certain person. By adopting this means, the want to prove that they are not afraid of spilling the beans. In other words, they also call a spade a spade. In reality, by doing this they taint a person's character. To speak curtly, they wilfully get engaged in character assassination. Even a dead celebrity is also not spared the venomous words aimed at him or her.
Lately, the 8th death anniversary of popular Bangladeshi actor Humayun Faridee drew a slew of verbal attacks in the form of slanderous observations about the artiste. Faridee proved his creative genius on stage, television and the cinema screen. Thanks to his turbulent conjugal lives, he has perhaps drawn the ire of his ex-admirers. But many believe it doesn't justify the diatribes which were levelled against him. Dejected, isolated from almost everyone close to him, cocooned in a world of reverie, Faridee died a premature death. This ill fate had awaited many an actor, both male and female, singer et al around the world in different times. Most of them left this world before the online world had taken its omnipresent shape. Whatever scandalous reports were published in newspapers and magazines about them, they were mild. They stuck to the minimum decency and decorum.
Perhaps the two most scandalous deaths in the 20th century were those of Hollywood's Marilyn Monroe, and the Indian Bengalee legendary singer Geeta Dutt of the then Bombay. Both had died unnatural deaths --- Monroe from drug overdose, termed by many a suicide, and Geeta Dutt from liver cirrhosis suspected to have been caused by alcoholism. Both led unhappy, turbulent lives. But their genius prevented them from becoming victims of mindless scandals. As could be gleaned from the newspapers of their time, instead of repulsion, their deaths prompted a wave of compassion on the part of the general people. Unfortunately, the post-death public outpourings for Marilyn Monroe and Geeta Dutt, and for that matter Michael Jackson, eluded the Bangladeshi celebrity Faidee.
As part of a new phenomenon, lots of Facebook account-holders are found to be blatantly sweeping in their remarks about people, events and social issues. A distressing development of the recent times comprises unscrupulous elements with fake identity forming groups to exchange information and messages. These are targeted at people whom they consider to be 'enemies'. Their posts have long threatened social assimilation. The Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg supports regulatory measures to keep the trouble-making elements at bay. He has recently advocated a regulatory system for Facebook which is somewhere between the existing rules used for the telecommunications and that are applied to the traditional media. People feeling concerned at the rise of provocative statuses on Facebook may take heart from the fact that Zuckerberg has taken the manipulative activities online quite seriously. Moreover, he has not bypassed his responsibility to keep the social media free of unwarranted hazards. Like him, the other online media moguls also lay special emphasis on keeping the social media free of controversies.
As has been seen in the print media, the governments were compelled to slap some restrictions on the newspaper contents. The media is seen as being synonymous with free speech. Taking this opportunity, a number of the champions of free thinking and freedom of thought have been found doing excesses online. This has resulted in socio-political unrest in the vulnerable countries. In time, the social media was also sucked into the whirlpool of controversies, with many governments pointing the finger at the online media outlets for patronising the belligerent quarters. Many of the governments and social establishments may have overreacted. Some may have nurtured the intention of finally overpowering their opponents by framing restrictive digital laws. Yet few can deny the fact that certain quarters are out to destabilise society by taking recourse to Facebook and the other media outlets. Facebook users having the minimum capability to read between the lines are fully aware of their presence alongside them. The intelligent sections overlook them altogether. Honey-tongued persuasions cannot convince them. The problem lies with the fact the gullible and rookie account holders at times get caught in the deftly spread fraternity network.
Many do not hesitate to accept that the style of remaining attached to Facebook accounts continues to change. Apart from attacking and humiliating someone by using fake identities, direct assaults under original names are also rampant. The warnings of closing their accounts do not deter them. The desperate of them hack into the accounts of others, bringing miseries for the latter. For many such reasons, lots of people keep themselves aloof from the social media. They find the inanities and provocations spread by the statuses to be equally revolting. After all said and done, the 21st century life is inextricably linked to the social media like Facebook. Yet, to many people the search engine Google is gifted with more delightful messages and information. However, both are unique in their own ways.