Youth, Social Media and Morality

Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of India,  said, I quote “My faith is in younger generation, the modern generation out of them will be my workers. They will work out the whole problem like lions.” In consonance with Vivekananda, we also ought to have tremendous faith in youth because they are the future citizens of our country and also indispensable assets to the growth and development of the nation. Youth are synonymous with energy, progress, change and enthusiasm. Mahatma Gandhi called youth as instruments of social change. Mahatma Gandhi emphasized on truth, non-violence, simplicity, tolerance, kindness and sarvodaya and urged students to adopt these virtues in their lives. The calls given to the youth by Gandhi and Vivekananda are a timeless contribution to humanity, transcending all geographical and social boundaries. They called upon youth of today to follow moral values which are alarmingly on a downward trend.

Our focus on youth energy assumes greater importance in view of the recently published report that in the next one decade, our country will have the distinction of having the highest youth population in the world. Hence , it is imperative that youth energy need to be properly channelized and also ensure that youth are engaged in nation building activities. However, in recent times, it is observed that the youth are very strongly attracted towards social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., and the media is negatively affecting the lives of younger generation. Social media have become an integral part of youth’s life. On an average, one third part of youth spend 2 to 3 hours per day on social media. It would not be an exaggeration if it is said that youth are active on social media from early in the morning to late in the night. Undesirable, provocative, harmful, soft pornographic information and pictures are being shown in social media, glamourising a certain behaviour that will have negative impact on the youngsters’ mental and physical wellbeing. Students are spending most of their leisure time by logging on to social media websites which many times is unproductive. Youth are misled by the weird content shown on the social media and many times they try to the imitate leading to conflict with parents, friends and socially disagreeable behavior and on rare occasions loss of life.

Parents are not aware of their children’s activities on social media sites. Drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking, involvement in criminal activities, hatred, dating, live in relationships have become very common among the youth thereby awfully affecting moral fabric of the society. Indian value system such as respecting parents, teachers, elders and fellow citizens has almost disappeared or become archaic. In educational institutions, several teachers are trying their best in educating children on the ill effects of getting addicted to social media and watching undesirable content but advice is falling on deaf ears. Many parents are expressing their inability to control their children and wean them away from social media. The changes in family structure like nuclear families, deprivation of parental love, single parent, single child, and pampering, greater freedom given to children are also contributing in a big way to this outlandish behavior of the youth.

Even though social media can be scary as mentioned in the previous paragraph,it has several merits also. There are any number of educational websites which can definitely help the students in their academics. With the mine of information available on the internet, the present generation of students are better informed and much smarter than the previous generations.   Social media is also a means for networking, building healthy relations and to be in touch with parents, friends and relatives  especially when moved out of native. Social media and internet were extensively used for online teaching-learning during covid. But, the fact is at that age of adolescence, youth are easily attracted towards information having negative impact on their physical and mental wellbeing. In a nutshell, though we have advanced in technology and means of communication, in respect of youth and social media, we are on a totally undesirable spot. It is indeed very alarming and we are left with no option but to rise to the occasion and take up remedial measures.

Issues with present day youth

 Let me enumerate the issues with the present day youth.

• Intolerance with high expectations.
• Insatiable hunger for money and material wants.
• Violent behaviour.
• Lack of clear -cut aim in their careers and lives
•  Addiction to social media.
• Non-adherence to Indian Value system.
• Aping the western culture.
• Wrong choice of role models.
• Unhealthy relationships.
• Students excelled in academics maintaining exclusivity

Where we have failed:

• Value based education, aiming at infusing humane qualities, is missing in educational curricula. Even if it is there, less importance is given in schools and colleges .

• Unethical practices in educational institutions are going unpunished.
• Lesser visibility of institutions established to propagate moral values and Indian value system.
• Minimal representation of youth in such organisations

Action Plan:

•  Governments need to make value based education an integral part of the curriculum at all levels of education.
•  Steps to propagate teachings of eminent personalities like Gandhi, Vivekananda, Basavanna,Buddha, Dr.Ambedkar and others in schools and colleges through lectures and activity based programmes, which may include  competitions like making short videos and films need to be undertaken .Long term  encouragement and training is required for assimilation of values .

•  Moral Education Centres in the name of eminent personalities like Vivekananda, Gandhi, Basavanna, Buddha, Dr. Ambedkar and others need to be established in all educational institutions so that thoughts and preachings of great personalities are disseminated through them thus inspiring the youth. Joint programmes between Gandhi Bhavans, Ramakrishna Ashrams and such spiritual  institutions and schools and colleges can be organized. With these measures, we will be able reach youth in a big way.
•  Reach of NSS in colleges and schools required to be enhanced.
• Identifying a group of people in each district having faith in  Gandhian ideals, values propagated by Vivekananda and others, organizing orientation programmes for them and encouraging  them to conduct programmes in educational institutions in the district to disseminate humane values will produce desirable outcomes . Besides,2or 3 teachers can be identified to co-ordinate such programmes in educational institutions.
•   Community oriented programmes like blood donations, eye donations etc., in the institutions on the occasion of birth anniversaries of eminent personalities are to be organized.
•  Counseling sessions for parents which may include good parenting need to be conducted.
•   Counseling sessions for teachers on ethics, morality and sanctity of the profession required to be organized.  
• Youth should be taught that means are more important than ends.
•  Creating awareness among students on social issues thus inculcating social responsibility should be on  the  list of priorities .

Social Transformation and instilling moral values can be brought about only through education. A lecturer in South African University wrote a message and placed at the entrance of the college. He wrote “Collapsing any nation does not require use of atomic bombs or the use of long range missiles. But it requires the lowering of quality of education and allowing cheating in the exams by students”.

Academicians,parents, educational administrators and policy makers, have greater responsibility of instilling moral values among the youth. Otherwise, I foresee great danger to the society in future.

I conclude with a quote by Swami Vivekananda, I Quote “Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have Life-building, Man-making, Character making assimilation of ideas.If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.”