Use It or Lose It.

(This is a picture of me and my friend, Alexandria from Canada, Toronto)

Can the Malaysian social media be censored? What are the implications of this?

In my view, the power of social media users will be the primary concern at the government’s desk if they ever decided to censor them. Take China and North Korea for example, since they are now literally banned from social media which are YouTube and the ever popular, Facebook. People only get one side of the story (the government) and not having a clearer idea of agendas and propagandas due to the circulation of materials which mostly involves only in the social media. Moreover, the revenues via advertising which involves social media will decrease drastically, which many will start to question about our country’s aspiration “Wawasan 2020”. With social media, we are able to hear the people’s perspectives and opinions. Wider scope of information is better than having only one.

Personally, with advanced technology like the social network, has given us an improved method in listening and knowing announcements, messages, news, and many more. The countless amount of social media users are depending on networking sites and other medias to know what is beyond the news. Furthermore, it is an easy and less expensive tool for the audience to gain information from the media, be it the newspapers or the internet. So, if social media is to be banned, there is sort of no critique to the government’s side thus it will greatly cripple the democracy of the country. With this, people will eventually form riots and would probably be more severe than the” Bersih” rally and create history.

What, how, and why do you consume social networking sites?

One of my many hobbies is social networking, because I grew up consuming it. It is part of my life and if it is taken away by the government, it’s like taking part of my life away. It brings an impact to my life in how I live in today’s world, in shaping the person I am today.

Mostly, I use social networking sites to build or maintain my relationship with the people I know, be it my family, friends, colleagues…  It is especially at this peak of time, where most of my friends that I’m close with are overseas in furthering their studies. We need to know each other’s whereabouts and what is happening to them and around them. Internet gave me an opportunity in educating myself further as my readings are not only from the books or hardcopies. I can easily search anything and everything at my fingertips. As a student, I am using the internet to do most of my assignments.

Everything has it pros and cons. Personally, internet has provided more advantages than the disadvantages. Mainly it provides information that is not in our boundaries or probably I couldn’t find what I was looking for at a bookstore. Moreover, it brings people closer as it is the medium that enables us to communicate at anywhere and everywhere we want, provided with the advance technologies like the WiFi, Broadband Internet and many more. Many years ago, my mom wasn’t updated with all the sophisticated technologies at first, and she couldn’t contact all her primary and high school friends. Now, she is staying in touch and meeting all her friends back, all because she found them through social network like the ever awesome Facebook. With this, it shows that social network unites many people be it different ages or races or ethnicities all across the globe.

Think about it, would you be able to live without social media as it is being censored by the government?

DFTBA,

Dannie

Reference:

~  http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/02/10-countries-facebook-banned/