Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but services to community
Media being the sixth pillar of society is considered very vital for maintaining social, economical, political, cultural and ecological stability. It affects and effects us. Sociology sees media through one of major perspective of it (structure and functionalism) and classifies media’s functions into three categories. Its manifest function is to inform, educate and entertain society. Its latent function include grooming of personal communication skills, individuality growth etc. dysfunction of media is rejection of performing manifest functions. Any negative influence on public is its dysfunction. Psychological traumas therefore can be labeled as dysfunction of media.
Media psychology involves the study of media effects and particularly sensory and cognitive processes. It might be the formation, maintenance or change of individual and group stereotypes or it may be On-camera and off-camera diversity and its effects on audiences, media stories and media perspectives. Negative influences of media are spreading like a tumor in our society because media is becoming the backbone of stable, advanced and modernized society. We are victim of it. It has penetrated into our souls and molding our behavior. We are willing to sit before television in leisure time rather sharing our emotions and feelings with dear ones. This in turn weakened our bond with beloved ones and influenced our attitude, outlook and verdict. It exaggerated all spheres of our lives.
Some media programs are against cultural synchronization among different cultures and highlighting cultural superiority and inferiority complexes. This is giving confinement to solemn clashes between nations. Media can never spell out its audience and indicate their gender and age group. This drawback is sharing information with all, either a child or an adult. Enthralling authority varies from individual to individual and thus information with flavor shared by media might nurture fruits somewhere and it might fabricate rotten eggs. Some very world famous events when on aired and their transmissions produced drastic results and consequences. World cup semi final between Pakistan and India was gaining attention of audience. Such advertisements were shown in our country that Pakistan won but unfortunately India won. It was the response of those fantasy advertisements that people broke their televisions sets, several faced serious nervous breakdowns. The incident of Saddam Hussain’s assassination when on aired on television and two children watched how they hanged him. They just took it as an activity and both performed which resulted in the death of one innocent life. News provided through media has a strong influence on us. “The ordinary public is a puppet of worthless news and media.” It can change opinions because it has access to people and this gives it a lot of strength. This strength can either be used constructively by educating the people or it can be used destructively by misleading the innocent people; could spoil everything by diverting the attention of people from important issues towards insignificant issues. Everyone watch news channel because they want to know what is happening around their world. Every person of the society either a child, adult or an old man watch television but each person does not have the same potential to absorb the content provided by different programs on television this result in several problems, sometime leads to severe psychological traumas. Several kinds of programs including crime shows , talk shows, dramas , morning shows , news , political programs , health care campaigns and telefilms affects the mind of audience differently. So media should have to maintain privacy, follow the media ethics, should not dramatize the news .Media either for a good or bad cause is leading to health issues. There is no concept of privacy and everything is publically available. Media must perform its role for the development of nation and country. Although everybody has a right to speak but one should check what he or she is going to share and say? If it hurts humanity, it should not be said. Why we are so addictive toward media and is there any alternative to utilize our energy.