THINK BEFORE YOU LIKE, SHARE OR FORWARD

Today, we are in the world of technology. Technology is so much advanced today that communication is now at fingertips. Communication today is fastest in terms of time for delivery and cheapest in terms of cost of delivery. There are various modes of communicating such as SMS, e-Mail, Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, We Chat, etc. All this is result of advanced and ‘smart’ technology.

Now-a-days we have smart phones, smart computers, smart tablets, smart technology, etc. We can see everything is becoming smart and smarter. But do we ask ourselves, that in the age of technology becoming smarter, are we also becoming smarter? What comes to my mind always looking at the today’s scenario that – This is the age of smart technology and idiot people. Technology is getting smarter but people are getting idiots.

With the increase in the use of social networking, we have definitely reduced the gap between ourselves, but alongside it, there is an increasing amount of spam in the social media world. I wonder how people fall prey to such spam messages. It all started when I was still studying in CA Final and one fine day just before exams I got a message as below –

“This message has come from Sai Baba Shirdi. This is a good luck message. Pass this message to 15 people except me and you’ll get good luck for next 5 years. Don’t ignore or delete or you’ll face bad luck for next 7 years”

Without thinking for a single moment, I deleted the message and I am still wondering where is my bad luck. Do you really think the message is sent by any God or any Deity? Are we really so insane of dumb to believe such things immediately? This comes to my thinking of smart technology and idiot people. This links to my article – “Think before you like, share or forward”.

What I have given above is just one example. There are many such examples of fooling people through technology. The intention is just to keep people busy in irrelevant things. I want to share examples of such spamming through social networking with an appeal to people not to fall prey for such spams.

Following are some popular of spamming on various social networks including SMS, IM, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc.

1.    Forward this message to get good luck or if ignored face bad luck for years. Do you really think that your good luck is depending on some type of forwarding of messages? Then I request you one more thing that forward ‘that’ message to 21 people as required and then don’t take any efforts in your life. Let’s see how and who gives you good luck. Even God will not help you if you don’t help yourselves.

2.    There is one popular spam on all types of social networks about ATM machines that if in case of emergency or some danger situation, if you enter your ATM PIN in reverse order, than the ATM machine will understand the danger and inform the nearest police station. I have seen when people get such messages they share or forward it immediately in a hope of sharing valuable information with someone else. But have you thought for a moment that this information might by fake or spam. Have you tried to check the authenticity of such message? For example, if my ATM PIN 1221 or say 4444 then I don’t have the right to inform the nearest police station in case of danger? The message clearly indicates itself that it’s fake information. Still people blindly share or forward it. This is one such example. There are many. You need to be careful before you share with someone.

3.    Pictures of religious places, Gods, of deities are posted on media and people are asked to like it or share it to get good luck. Do you think God is sitting there with facebook and observing people who like His photo and then to transfer good luck to that person. By liking or sharing religious photos you are not worshipping God but in turn you are insulting Him.

4.    Posting photos of health affected people or children and asking for likes and shares so that you can pray to God for saving the person in the image from such medical illness. For example 1 like = 1 prayer and 1 share = 100 prayers. I think you are not praying for the health of affected person but you are just making fun of such people.

5.    Apart from the above there are various types of spamming in form of creative manipulation of images so as to make people believe them to be true and think of it like a miracle, again demanding likes and shares on such information. I have seen people sharing or liking such images assuming it to be true.

I have covered a very limited aspect of spamming here. But whenever I use social networking, I find spamming to a very large extent. Even if it doesn’t cost you anything to like, share or forward something, still whenever you forward some information in the social media, you should at least check for its authenticity. We are generally advised to ‘Think before you speak’. But in this social media context I would like to change it to ‘Think before you like, share or forward.’

CA. Amol Gopal Kabra