ABINASH’S COMMENT, MY WORK AND SOCIAL MEDIA This title may not bring good taste to my friends on face book and particularly my dear Abinash Mahapatra who provoked (not in exact sense) me to post this write up. Face Book is one of the various digital modes of interaction and it comes under the ambit of social media, as popularly called. I will be happy if my friends including Abinash go through my posting on 6th August, 2013 where I have called upon my friends to transform digital friendship to friendship of mind. A recently conducted survey shows that 42% of electorates mind is influenced by the news and discussion on electronic media. Readers’ interest in print media falls far behind of it and social media only constitute 10% of opinion formulators. My profession is confined to class room and besides, being a teacher I am also in active participation of democratic teacher’s movement. Most of the creative minds in different intellectual and artistic pursuits hesitate to open the ideology and politics they are committed to. In their writings, discussion and debate they take the similar position sometimes either being driven by populism or a middle way or you can say keeping equidistance from dominant ideology and politics of given society. My commitment to Marxist ideology and politics is open and I try my level best to be part of broader democratic and left movement the extent to which bourgeois constitution and service condition permits. You must know only the teachers and employees of West Bengal enjoy political right and it was granted under left Front government. In some universities the teachers have some partial political rights. So, I have limitations although have strong desire to undertake some work to strengthen the democratic movement. Now come to social media where like you millions use it. Print and electronic media is an institution and they serve the specific socio-economic interest and act in advancing a kind of politics that they profess. To say that media play an impartial and independent role in our socio-political system is a misnomer. Rather media is not only today a powerful instrument in furtherance of dominant class interest but also in terms of size and spread its capital is huge and transnational. Rightly survey says that 42% of Indian electorates are influenced by electronic media. That, its main stay, the entertainment industry binds the viewer’s hours together and leaves little space and time to have thinking mind which is an essential of freedom. Reading habit has eroded among younger generations. They are mostly confined to text books and competitive examination materials. Yes it is quite necessary for their career and job. But for a conscious citizenry to play effective and creative role in socio-political life we must have critical mind. The generation of readers that you talk of or come across is not interested in deep and through reading and also averse to critical discourses. In our age when education is marketed like commodity it only serves the consumers interest. The purpose of education is right to question, the freedom of thinking and critical engagement is unthinkable within ambit of capital. The face book readers must rise above the ‘short- cut –route’ to know and solve everything. The users of social media enjoy distinct position in modern day world. We are a privileged few who have access to this mode of interaction while millions of our countrymen do not have adequate years of qualitative schooling. I got engaged with social media with an outlook that whatever views or opinions I like to put does not come under any house’s scrutiny or censure before it is published. I am owner, proprietor, publisher, editor, manger of my post. Even a small number of readers if interact with me seriously and critically I hope my purpose of joining digital mode for exchange of thinking minds to some extent is served. This position is more important today when sizable section of middle class, mostly the beneficiary of neo-liberal regime and section of intellectuals under the influence of reactionary politics use social media day in and day out to create mirage and false image around individual or individuals or an ideology by putting huge investment to see that peoples opinion is get derailed and unity disrupted Users of social media and face book in specific have diverse modes of expression. I need not comment on them. All taste shall never be same and uniform. The diverse forms of expression: poems, satire, comment, opinion, art or painting, if meaningfully and ideally reflected I hope our labour is creative and productive. I thank again my dearest Abinash who is the son of a leading teacher leader of our state and also creative literary mind would appreciate my stand. I Once again request him to engage ideologically and politically on each emerging issues to ensure that social media produces thinking army to battle for exploited and oppressed. May it appear ambitious but I have not lost hope.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 20:21:32 +0000
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