Except for my ‘Coffee with Facebook’ and a wee bit of Whatsapping, my infatuation with social media is pathetic. Hence my social dilemma is perhaps not as personally damaging.

But I write this for others, for my kids, family, friends, and for anyone reading it. Please. Halt immediately in your digital tracks to become aware of the dangers of the web that you are being entangled into.

For some time now we have been battling the chaos created by social media by the corporations that use algorithms to manipulate us into becoming addicted to their platforms. There is growing evidence that humans who have lost the ability to calm and soothe themselves with real-world reflection, activities, and relationships, turn to social media for distraction and entertainment.

But the real threat is when the fiend takes over to erode the social fabric of our society. The danger begins when we are bamboozled away from the ‘information age’ into the ‘disinformation age’, when our minds get captured, controlled, brainwashed and influenced.

When ‘We the People’ are taken for a ride on an emotional roller coaster. When ‘We the Product’ are prone to gradual changes in our behaviour. When ‘We the Merchandise’ are being marketed in a bizarre bazaar that trades exclusively on human futures.

When ‘We the Guinea Pigs’ become the lab rats that are made to work like zombies. And when ‘We the Fools’ have wilfully swapped our real world for a virtual one by trading our natural intelligence for an artificial one.

Let me explain in simple words how lethal this tool is. Every morning, we start our day by brushing our teeth, making coffee, heating leftover snacks, grinding spices, cutting vegetables, cooking and cleaning. Note this, for it is very important. The tooth brush, coffee maker, microwave, grinder, knife, cutting board, utensils, stove and vacuum cleaner don’t have a say.

They are merely gadgets, lying there in their own place, waiting for us to use them. They don’t demand it. They don’t seduce. They don’t manipulate. Unlike the digital pacifier aka the cell phone, which lures you into checking how much your latest Post or Selfie was ‘liked’ ‘loved’ or ‘cared’ by people you don’t even know.

These gadgets are not addictive tools, deceitfully designed to pull you away from your kids or your family. They don’t programme or rope you into a matrix to harvest money from the data of your activity.

They don’t tap into your deep seated psychological instincts and play with your emotions; don’t have any sneaky goals of providing fake news or a cacophony of scandals to disturb your peace. They don’t sink all those ships- the friendships and relationships on which you have so comfortably been sailing until now.

These gadgets don’t lure you into a fake world of popularity; distract your attention away from the real issues; keep digging into the past to divide and polarise communities who have been living peacefully; or spread myths, rumours and misinformation. And they don’t destroy a stable democracy.

Don’t get me wrong. The internet is a boon. It has reunited families and friends, spread social awareness, found organ donors, in fact through most platforms there have been meaningful systematic changes across the globe. But I guess we were rather naïve about the flip side of the coin, realising its danger only when humanity is being checked by technology!

There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’, one is the illegal drugs and the other is the software industry. So when technology takes on a life of its own, we become the ‘products’, constantly being fed with fake news because truth is so boring.

The change is not drastic, but a gradual slight imperceptible transformation in your behaviour and perception. In this new kind of marketplace that undermines democracy and freedom, the human future is traded. Through sleazy manipulation, we are all implanted with an unconscious habit. And even without realising, we are being programmed at a deeper level.

One of the most troubling implications of weaponising an online tool is that it can lead to real offline harm. When public opinion is manipulated, it can incite violence.

It’s not like propagandists haven’t existed before but such platforms make it possible to spread information with phenomenal ease. Imagine a world whose only diet is social media. Imagine that kind of a power in the hands of a dictator or an authoritarian. Imagine the kind of chaos it could lead, to be able to manipulate such tools for a nefarious gain.

It’s no longer just about elections or votes. It’s about hatred being laid bare to create a divide. It’s about sowing total disorder and chaos until two sides can’t hear each other anymore; don’t want to listen to each other anymore; and don’t trust each other anymore.

Is that what we truly want? A democracy for sale? A blurred vision in society? A bizarre autocratic dysfunction? Culture wars?

Technology itself is not a threat. What is worrying is when the digital monsters terraform the world in their image. It then brings out the worst in society who in turn become the existential threat. And if this threat creates instability, incivility, alienation and polarisation, then we devolve into a sick society that is incapable of healing itself.

Yes, it’s definitely confusing because with technology what we experience is a simultaneous kind of Utopia and a Dystopia. It’s also not like we can put the genie back in the bottle. So do we meekly continue to give in to the powerful or are we ever going to stop and think. Of the national interest and of the interest of the ‘users’?

We live in a world where a tree, a whale, and a tiger are worth more financially when they are dead, rather than alive. And as long as it works that way, trees will continue to be destroyed and animals will continue to be slaughtered. Hopefully this should be the last straw that should wake us up to realise how flawed this system is.

For now we are the tree, whale and tiger that are being exploited. Unless we learn not to be outsmarted by AI, and divert our attention from staring into screens to concentrating on our values and our goals in life, we will continue to be profitable to them.

Technology might be intimidating but it is not a law of physics. Nothing is set in stone. If we have built it, we should also be responsible enough to change it.

Our attention should now be to get off the corrosive business of how humans should be treated, and design a model that works in a more humane way. Every time there was a change, it was only when someone came along to point out our stupidity.

It’s only the critics that drive improvement because ironically they are the true optimists. So let us join hands and try to change our direction to focus on a better and safer world!

Nargis Natarajan is a writer, author and novelist residing in Bhubaneswar. Views expressed are the writer’s own.

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