In this very moment of 21st century, each society and nation is facing violence and terrorism to some extent. Violent extremism can be defined as the contradiction one feels toward others religion, beliefs and ideology and in response show some kind of paradoxical behavior. This conflicting behavior is not acceptable in any situation as nations cannot live without undertaking of each other’s beliefs or norms. But the reasons behind these fatalistic circumstances not only include one’s personal motives, some of its grounds are connected with façade movements. The movements’ only goal is to create a situation of continuous chaos.
In the age of technology and Artificial Intelligence, we are being affected more by social media than any other invention of the century. The reasons behind extreme behaviors of the society lies in the past history, they face or the present day, in which they are trying to overcome its pressure. This pressure may come from kith and kin, friends and foes. It acts as “Spiritual Bankruptcy” for those vulnerable people who don’t know where to put their frustration. In the hopeless world of happiness, the worldly possessions become the only charm for that specific part of society which is debted to their souls and relations. They choose most accessible medium which is none other than social media. It is the most common disease for countries like Pakistan which is suffering from political turmoil and economic upheaval. It became easy for extremist organizations to approach and indulge these people into mediated reality through social media sites.
There are many theories of communication that support the idea of how media leaves long term effects on one’s mind and behavior who spend most of his time on media usage.An American Journalist and media scholar, George Gerbner introduced Cultivation Effect Hypothesis Theory. According to this theory, Media Cultivate your behaviors in accordance with the heavy viewing time spend on Television. The theory presents four hypotheses which are Catharsis Hypothesis, Stimulation Hypothesis, Imitation and Disinhibition Hypothesis.
The most supporting hypothesis by many researchers is Stimulation which tells that when one sees more violence or extreme behaviors on TV it will lead to violent behavior in real life of the person. You will start living in the fantasy world instead of reality. The real world seems cruel, pessimistic and mean to you. It is known as “Mean World Syndrome”. This theory is explained to brief the consequences of media, leaves at its heavy viewers. It will not be surprising for you all to learn about a set of figures presented by Steinfeld that 101000 violent episodes on television constitutes 13400 death scenes will be seen by a 12-year-old child.
The hot topic of media extremism nowadays is religion and politics. We are seeing record increase in Islamophobia activities all around the world. Each day there is another highlight adding up to the news about anti-Islam protests, banning hijabs and many more such absurd acts by civilized societies. It’s not only about one religion, Islam but we have seen examples of threats toward Christianity and Sikhism also. Social media has an unmatchable power in comparison to any other digital media entity. Its hashtags become worldwide trends.
Nowadays, we need to control the hate speech on social media which is one of the prime grounds toward extremism. It became a common practice to give hate comments toward others choice of living. World can be a better place if society starts to make good use of media. But where should we start? Individual steps can be taken as it is more feasible than collective approach of government.
One can start accepting others point of view and respecting the cultures, beliefs and ideologies of other nations. Media Ethics are one of the best initiatives toward prevention of extremism from social media. The gatekeepers must ward off the negative events or comments on social media. Each country should provide legal ethics of social media like print and electronic media.Social media is giving us freedom of speech not freedom of disrespecting other religions and to use foul language on the lifestyle of other people.We all live with the best abilities of thinking then why can’t our speech reflect us as the best humanity speaker. A kind gesture can make someone smile so why doesn’t be the part of this smile.
A kind word can lead us to the Kind World: Media Hegemony is also another reason behind this filtered content of information and entertainment, the world is getting acquainted with. The media watchdogs of capitalist world area greater disadvantage in handling this situation. Two-way flow of communication in which opinion leaders has an impact on the vulnerable public, the public who can’t think and don’t have their own perspectives about life. The opinion leaders must share unbiased information and grow the importance of tolerance in communication among their respective followers. It can help reduce the extreme and hateful narratives on social media. Opinion leaders can change the scenario of radicalization by taking part in the campaigns of resilient behaviors to avoid unethical approach on media.
We should count the virtues of tolerance and kind talk while living in a society. The unbearable world will look with a smile if we start sharing smile among each other. Let’s share our thoughts and listen to others. Love, kindness and tolerance is a rare treasure but it is needed at a higher rate. We can’t live our lives to the fullest if we can’t enjoy these attitudes among us. If the phenomenon of sharing our thoughts with each other becomes common, then it means we can give a safe world to our next generations. Let’s hope for an optimistic world and put an end to this extreme environment.
