Virtual Society: Bangladeshi Youth in Crisis
Kamrul Hassan:
Nowadays, the whole world is in global crisis due to COVID-19 or corona virus pandemic. Almost every country has already been affected by this deadly virus. The result of corona fear directly impacts on family and social life. Particularly, the young people are in mental panic due to the lockdown and quarantine issues. However, the current global epidemic has become a sign of social crisis. It is important to mention that almost all young people now engage in virtual communication within the virtual society. The term ‘virtual society’ or ‘virtual community’ is not a new in the human society, but it has different points of view. It is one kind of online social link or social network where people can interact via an access to the Internet. Within this society, there is no geographical borderline or political limitation to communicating with one another. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “virtual society or virtual community means a group of people, who can or cannot see or meet each other face to face, who conversate or communicate or share their words, ideas, thoughts, happiness, sorrow, feelings and emotions via virtual network or online media.” One of the famous American writers, Howard Rheingold, states that “virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from internet when enough people carry on those public discussion long enough, with sufficient human feelings, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.”
It is one of the identical crises where young people are going in a wrong direction because of excessive access to the Internet. Research has shown that more than 4.5 billion of the total world’s population are using the Internet. At the same time, around 3.8 billion internet-users are connected with the social media. From the above statistic, it is clear that around 60% of the total world’s population are using the Internet. Therefore, it is demonstrated that more than two thirds of the total internet-users are directly engaged with social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, WeChat, TikTok, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. Facebook and YouTube are the most commonly used social media over the globe.
In developed countries, people use social media in their leisure time or in vacation period. Most of the time they become busy to follow up their busy work scheduled. Besides, in Bangladesh social media are widely used for entertainment purpose, which suggests that people are wasting their valuable time only in accessing social media. Accessing social media excessively can become a threat to the human body and mental health. It is pretty clear that Bangladeshi young people are mostly addicted to social media. Consequently, young people always become upset or irritated. In 2019, research found that young people are facing extreme rates of mental anxiety and depression. Such activities directly influence the family and social life.
Due to extreme addiction to social media, young people prefer to stay at safe places such as their own rooms or homes rather than to participate in outdoor social activities. From social networking perspective, it can be said that the range of networking has been significantly extended. It is a continuous process, and one of the good signs for virtual communication and internet business. On the other hand, it is also alarming for young people who in their real-life social affairs. It is all about psychological issues, which directly influence young people and their daily activities. It is significant that youths are the backbone of the society. They have a great impact on social development.
Every society has some common problems which are related to youths, such as poverty; lack of education; gender and social discrimination; social abuse; neglect and harassment; verbal and emotional bullying; social distance due to social media; fixing social issues; social crimes; lack of community management and poor leadership. Most of the social problems are interconnected with the social leadership. Mostly, community leaders are the persons who are always dedicated to, and supportive of the social wellbeing. Hence, the community leaders must ensure that the social structure is well-organised to save youths from unknown social and moral degradation. It is also significant to understand that youths are the main mechanism of a well-organized society. If young people extremely rely on social network, then in real-life their family and society will face various difficulties, such as lack of social behavior, low morality and dignity.
From the legal perspective, the National Youth Policy 2017 focuses on vision 2041 and UN-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the paragraph 4 of the National Youth Policy 2017, states that the state authority will “ensure the quality education, health, and all security for youth.” Furthermore, it will also develop “youth into self-respective and positive human being.” Paragraph 10.3 deals with social participation, where it will “facilitate constructive social participation on mass media together with virtual media.” In addition, paragraph 10.3.5 states that under this policy the relevant authority will “sensitize youth to the pros and cons of social media and its addictive effect.” In the same avenue, paragraph 10.4.1, provides that the state authority will “take effective action to end socio-economic disparity between youth in urban and rural area.” In the same way, paragraph 10.5 deals with social protection and promoting of human rights, where it states that “the authority will make social awareness and related activities for all citizens”. Finally, the provision of the paragraph 10.5.4 states that “the state authority will motivate young people to play a major role in order to safeguarding national security and socio-religious harmony with protection and promotion of human rights.”
It is important to mention that the health care issue is one of the priority-based area for the development of young people under the National Youth Policy 2017. In this regard, paragraph 9.1.5 states that “the state authority will develop medical treatment and counselling services in order to cure way young people from the mental diseases namely frustration, depression and other psychiatric difficulties.” From the above scenario, it can be presumed that we have enough rules, regulations and policies for the betterment of youth, but we need to implement all these policies in proper way.
From the overall perspective, it is acknowledged that due to lack of psychological care young people always have problem in communicating with others face-to-face. In many cases, young people become more hesitant to take a decision whether they are doing the right or wrong thing. Therefore, day by day social relationship, self-respect and moral behavior are waning in the social setting. Parents, neighbours, relatives and the community leaders are in real danger to deal with youths in their real-life as well as in the virtual world. Thus, it can be said that mental health is one of the biggest wealth for young people. It is the right time to take extra care to save youths. If not, then above-mentioned issues will create more problems and difficulties.
Therefore, it is suggested that the government and concerned authorities should take careful and effective steps for the wellbeing and welfare of the youths.
: The writer is a Ph.D. Researcher and Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
