KATHMANDU IS BEING ARTISTIC DAY BY DAY AND ITS PLEASANT TO SEE THE ARTISTIC MURALS AROUND THE VALLEY WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD BE COVERED BY DISGUSTING POLITICAL SLOGANS AND UGLY FILM POSTERS….
MURALS AROUND JAWLAKHEL
Tag: revolution
MEDIA AND IT’S IMPACT ON YOUTH
In this age of information technology, media plays a very essential and vital role to process and disseminate the information. In the modern economics, information is valued more than gold. So, we can say the value of economics has been shifted to the information. Thus, we can say, we are living in the information society in which we consume information as commodity. We can say that information is knowledge so eventually the person with information is knowledgeable and wise. Presumably we can guess the medium( i.e. media) to make the information happen has great significance attached to it. Consequently, the youth , the oft remarked as the hope of the future , is impacted by the media in the large scale.
Technically, media is classified into print, broadcast and electronic media. Print media includes the printed form of media i.e. newspaper, magazine, books, journals etc. TV and FM radios are broadcast media. Electronic media comprises of medias such as internet, films, documentaries etc.
The simple definition of youth doesn’t have certain and fixed criterion. To state simply, the period between childhood and maturity is considered to be youth. This period is the lengthy time period of a person’s life which is full of tumult, commotion and vigor.
The development and accessibility of media reflect the real image of the development of overall aspects of a society and a nation as well. Youth can take media as an equal possibility and challenge to move ahead in the personal, social, economical, cultural and political development.
Media is constantly evolving from its traditional stature to more modern and improvised form. It reshapes and redefines the personality of youth in this age of twitter and facebook. The whole world is now swept by the mania of facebook and twitter. It’s a fashion and that’s impacting the youth in a lot many ways. Now, individuality ,not necessarily has to be confined in the narrow space within oneself. It is exposed to others to share, create, debate the ideas. And that’s where facebook and twitter work. The significance of such social sites has reached to the climax as the recent report shows the increased use of facebook and twitter to organize anti-government demonstrations in the countries like Iran, Egypt, Tunisia etc. where the participation of youth was immense. So media , here, is seen as the instigator of the revolt. Media is the whistle blower of anything the odds happening in the society. The use of social media informs the people about such things in a matter of second. Youths increasingly takes this an opportunity to share and gain information no matter how much trivial it seems. Media is being used as the platform for the youths of the common purpose to form kinda like a social club or organization that on the positive note is working on the noble causes like for humanity and advocacy. The examples can be taken from the organizations such as tfc nepal, group of young geeks who are twitter freaks, collects the funds from their members as per their tweets to utilise it in social services and the facebook group, Nepal Unites , who are meticulously scrutinizing the inch by inch development in political and social arena. It has become a popular means to mark the influence upon the large mass. To speculate about the negative aspect of social media such as faceboook and twitter is that it has decreased the value of time. People forget themselves for hours if they get to tweet in facebook and twitter. The continuous use of such media in the useless manner erodes the productivity, efficiency and creativity. And the youth in the heighten scale of adolescence are severely victimized by this plague. The new kind of pathology has been evolved from the continuous use of social media known as facebook depression and the youths in a large group are prone to this neurosis. Virtual relationship and personality are on the rise and the youths have become delusional to associate this as genuine. Media, in a nutshell has changed the ways of associating ourselves with other people and this could be a setback in real life situations. We may loose the grip of reality and swayed by the superficiality.
Social site is a very tiny bit of internet media. Internet in the quick succession of time has flourished worldwide. It has impacted the globalization. Everything, from the information of molecules to space, one click can satiate our curiosity. Internet has been the huge source of reference to the knowledge and the youths who are dedicated to increase their volume of knowledge, internet is the paradise for them. Youths are active in the e-marketing, telemarketing and IT business which have directly paved them the way of livelihood. One never misses anything from the internet. So it also brings forth the negative aspects also, in which cybercrimes and cyber threat to the government are the most graving ones. The fragile and vulnerability of the youth are jeopardized by the series of cybercrimes such as the publishing of the contents of obscenity of young girls and boys in the web which can be easily viewed by the youths unsuitable for their age. This gives a positive reinforcement for the youth to develop immoral and debauched behaviors . Similarly, the plagiarism of the information in the internet has affected the intellectuality of youth. The copy and paste tendency is increasing in the youth. And the deadly form of terrorism i.e. cyber attack on the system of government has seriously imposed the threat to the security of the government. The involvement of youth is a skyrocketing high in this field also.
Newspapers and magazines have given the platform for the youth to participate their voices and issues. Medias such like newspapers and magazines also focus and target the youth readers publishing supplementary pages. They have created the roundtable for the youths to participate to have their opinions and views. Besides this, with a sip of the tea, youths minds are framed by the news and information given in a newspaper. The analytical news in magazine often make youths to interpret the information in their own ways. Their sentiments and interests are largely affected by the contents in a newspaper and a magazine. Youths are easily motivated to shift their attention to the latest fashions, so, newspapers can play a role of appealing to the youths to embrace the latest fashion and trends. This continuous churn of the knowledge gives refined and precise intellect to the youths. In today’s world of unemployment the vacancies put up in a newspaper can be a relief and in fact the great motivating factor to serve youths destiny. The sideline benefits are the development of good command of language, improvement in grammar, vocabulary and even in intra-personal communication skill. Newspaper reading from early years prepare the youths to be avid readers who will eventually become leaders in future.
When it comes to television, then the impact of it is beyond one’s reckoning. The programs telecasted in TV channels give a broad spectrum of information to cultivate the wide variety of sects of the personality of youth. TV programs such as films, reality shows, dramas, music shows, talent shows , sports, show biz, educational and informational programs ( such in discovery, animal planet) are popular among the youth. They are not only the source of entertainment but the instrumental means of appealing them to transform their culture, fashion, perspective and thinking. Youths tend to imitate the ways of their favorite role models such as heroes, heroines and truly are inspirational figures for them. Their knowledge on different aspects also get enhanced and nurtured. TV is one of the important tool to bring globalization. It also has impacted on socialization of youth. Youths like to call upon their friends and circle to watch the program such as world cup of football , cricket etc. Most of their topics of interaction include the TV programs. Of course, the news in TV update them of the events happening around them. But the graving sides of it are also not to be withheld. The great danger for the human mind is the stereotypic effect of it. People tend to nod on the every issues shown in it and never give any single moment to think critically Besides the addiction with it and consequent loss of time and responsibility is always lurking .In broadcast media, the most accessible media is radio. So the programs in radio indiscriminately embrace all kinds audiences. It has also more or less the similar impacts of television in youth but to the less extent inasmuch as it does not include visual aid. Then also, it’s compatibility due to simplicity, affordable price, portability and accessibility, helps to engross the audience.
Films and documentaries are the generalized and advanced way of presenting the story. It is a very lucrative industry which holds a very large number of audiences in which the high concentration is made up of youth audiences. They have made the weekend of people very enjoyable as it is the best way of getting regaled. Films provide a space for an individual to get along with other members of society so the relation among them smoothens . They touch the sentiment and also excite the intellectuality of a person. No wonder, the world would be a very boring place without these means of information.
Who can deny the profundity of books that from centuries on ,are still sowing minds with knowledge and wisdom. The knowledge from books is similar to the first hand experience that one gets over the course of time. So in beforehand, they make a person conscious about several situations in a human life. Therefore no- nothing youths can be a master of something in their later years by engrossing themselves with the knowledge of the book . They can always be wary of conflicting, catch-22 and qualm situations to get the insight of the solutions in such moral and logical issues .
The impact of media is stupendously great in the youth. Youths become amputate in the absence of media. The conclusion of this whole discourse also coincides with the surge of popular notion that this age is the age of information technology and media plays a very dynamic and diverse role to facilitate the human intellectuality and civilization. In this process, youths cannot be separated off. In fact they are the key stakeholders to drive this age into further sophistication with the aid of media. If the negative impacts of media are to be minimized or avoided then the youths can tread up to the path of human empowerment upon the things that are deemed to be impossible.
Thoughts and Reminiscence 