The age of the Forward

Dr Shirali Raina
We, Indians, seem to live a mysterious paradox, almost every day. Well, at least,most of us. If we are not trying to jump queues, then we will be fidgeting and cursing the slow moving lines, if we are not speeding down the middle of the road, then we will be trying to overtake the car in the front , if we are not talking rapidly over each other,then we will keep on looking at our watches while somebody is talking to us. All signs and symptoms of a nation in great hurry.
And yet, as contradictions stand, we are generally late for everything.
Sauntering in five minutes late for a meeting is taken as a norm, turning up one hour late for an invited lunch is a social thing, not turning up at all for a ‘at home’ with a measly text explanation sent the next day is almost acceptable, crawling in the dark to find seats,after the movie has started is a common sight.There are many explanations for being late ; the rain,the maids, the PTA, house guests,sometimes this and sometimes that. But never us.
The standard one in our frenzied city is being’ caught in a traffic jam’. Yes, the city traffic is horrendous and yes it has been like that for the past 25 years that I have lived here. As the roads widened and the flyovers got supplemented with underpasses, the traffic too swelled. We all know this, before we go to bed every night.
However all is not lost. There is a new found promptness in certain areas.One of the biggest examples is our behaviour on social media and in particular the chat applications.No sooner does a post land in our inbox, there it goes,already forwarded to a dozen more before you can say Jack Robinson. It does not matter if the content is relevant or not to the receiver. This is a blind distribution. Many a time, I am sure, the sender does not even know what has been forwarded. The sender in his or her eagerness to share the new tit bit of information, most of the time worthless, does not bother to pause and reflect if sharing this is really necessary, does not realise that by sharing it he/she is indirectly endorsing the content.
Some of this can be counter productive and two examples come to my mind.
Sometime back there was a video clip circulating on one of these Chat Apps, claiming to bring awareness to the general public in matters of health and treatment. Not only did it degrade doctors but also misinformed people about modern medicine. It skewed facts of treatment and the contents were presented in such a way that a layman would think twice about reaching out for medical help even in case of potentially life threatening medical events. The advocator in the clip probably did not realise that there is a huge gullible population out there,illiterate and uneducated but having access to smart phones and the audiovisual media. People, who are too illiterate to cross check facts,swallow these online messages as the gospel truth.
Alternative medicine and preventive medicine have their place in the sun but misleading people in emergency situations is criminal.I sent the clip to our local chapter of API to file a case against this quack.
Just a week ago, another breaking news landed in my chat box from three different people. There was a video showing a plane bursting into flames on a tarmac. The note accompanying the video proclaimed that is was from one of the popular air services, had caught fire an hour ago in a busy metro airport while taking off and 28 injured. It was a coincidence that I knew one of my colleagues was supposed to be in the same flight. I panicked when I could not get to him on his phone. I quickly googled the online news services to check if there was any information. There was none. I would have probably called up the airlines number too but the thought of being a participant in spreading this rumour, halted me. It was a hoax being played out to several thousand phone users. Was this ghastly misinformation just a prank or a well thought out plan to create panic in these already turbulent times?
As an aside, there is an online site, AeroInside where all incidents of air traffic are recorded meticulously and facts can be cross checked.
The point I am trying to make here is that while knowledge is power and rapid dissemination of information is almost a need of the modern world, surely there needs to be some kind of a ‘Stop-Pause-Go’ akin to a traffic signal before one touches that ‘Forward’ icon? Can not we follow a simple rule that if there is no way to authenticate, then let us not propagate it. There is absolutely no necessity for us to be a cog in the wheel of untruth or semi baked truth.
Then there is the subject of the so called religious ‘forwards’ or blatantly communal clips and most of us have received them ,sometime or the other. I once asked such a sender that what did he think he was achieving by sending it and asking to forward it to another ten people in the next one hour or some calamity would befall me. I was left speechless at the careless answer, ‘Oh I haven’t seen it fully….somebody sent and asked to be forwarded to ten people so I sent it to you as well’.
Well I have seen many people dying of various disease but never anyone who died because he/she didn’t forward a post ! I am not sure either that God has a cyber cell which monitors and doles out quick punishments to the defaulters!!
It is a shame that we the so called educated class is falling prey to this malady. Social networking has an energy about it and when used positively to spread awareness,it yields a tremendous outcome. We have seen the benefits and use of this to spread a quick word during natural calamities, man made disasters, organising relief and aid, providing updates and so much more.
Yes there is always a choice of disengaging oneself, but I personally like to share a joke or two with my friends, enjoy the book and music links and just the plain delight of being connected and conversing with the people I like and admire. It is the flip side that is painful, the doctored forwards, the rabble rousing forwards, the misinformative forwards and the plain untruthful ones geared at cheap sensationalism. Also as responsible citizens does it behove us to keep silent about this menace?
There has been a rising concern about how the social media is being misused by the socio-religio-political mischief mongers. So it came as no surprise when I chanced upon a news item in the Financial Express last week. In a joint order issued by the DM and the senior SP of Varanasi,it is  made clear that any factually incorrect,rumour or misleading information circulated on a social media group can result in a legal action and will be considered under Cyber Crime Law. There is a set of do’s and don’ts and instructions about the next steps if one comes across such online material.
We are a democracy, there is a freedom of expression. A freedom of expression to air our opinions but not to air manipulated content and morphed narration and certainly not at the cost of  physical health ,mental well being and communal harmony.
Astrology defines time periods as zodiac ages ,each age stretching over several hundred years and many believe that we are currently in the Age of Aquarius.
Correction, it is the Age of The Forward, stretching over several thousand of users.
Only responsible and authentic ones are welcome,please.
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