By Siddhant Vora
Has the acme of our leadership been as successful as bug-organizations in blindfolding our intellect towards the usage of technology and media or do we relentlessly pursue a kind of passionate intensity towards ignorance? With the Cobrapost sting operation revealing the nefarious rigging campaigns meant to influence the voters towards a desired party, a member of the success-quagmire, the gullibility of us, social media users and the guile of those in whose supervision we rest our worldly functioning, have become alarming issues. Reports of fake explosion news have also been widespread on social media to prevent certain communities from appearing for elections. About 3% of the IT company income strength is hence derived and we act as the propellants for we know not when to stay aware and when to choose the weapon of ignorance. This brings us to the important discussion of the schism and strata of ignorance, especially in todays age of information.
The first kind is of those who try to bend the spoon only till they realize there is no spoon. Social media excites them till their democratic rights are put to test. Whether the trespassing is essential or not is a different issue altogether. The superficial of things strives as we bask in oblivion. As more and more information is made available and shared online, concerned organizations are enjoying a bounty of targets as we bargain critical data. Lately, the CBI has recommended probe action into the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to dig into peoples profiles and statuses to feed their need of checking mischievous use via overt, discreet and covert investigation. With the prevalence of Internet crimes, the decision of the CBI may seem justifiable but at the same time, it compromises our constitutional opportunities. While patrolling and monitoring cybercriminals is needed, many naive users chose to remain ignorant of the fact that lifes book is open only beyond online.
Delving into recent news, even the twitter account of our Union HRD, Shashi Tharoor, has not been spared from supposedly being hacked into, creating a cesspool of wackiness around the solemn occasion of his wifes death. A thing that began as an ingenious solution to a problem, courtesy, globalHell, global KOS, et al, has pirated into our privacy, creating a fascinating platform for underground gameplay bringing us closer to the reality of our immense ignorance.
The second kind of ignorant choses to be so by nature. Advancements in technology like tracking, sensing, decoding have warned us of attacks but we refrain from stern prior action. We have one minister wrongly think of cloud computing to be disrupted by the rains! These people chose their own fate of blissful ignorance. People feel they understand complex phenomena with far greater precision, coherence, and depth than they really do. But as the ABA has put it, ignorance to technology is not an excuse. We, especially the kids today, do not need to direct others to the place from where they have snapped and shared their latest picture. Geotagging is one such invention people can do without in order to ensure safety.
The last type of an ignorant man is the most important one deserving special credit for being the free thinker that he is. He deals with sustainability as a venture of ignorance. This man accepts his ignorance in each realm only to judge more wisely on the issue, and hence cannot be misled. Now, since we cannot lose out on all our ignorance, let us chose the one that feeds our growth amidst the profound mist of the information age, and not the one that sustains innuendo, speculation, hyperbole and nonsense.
The author is an engineering student at MIT,Manipal pursuing the diverse field of Mechatronics. Being passionate about writing, seeking awareness and debates, it seems absurd to see the reluctance of few towards policy, law, economics and politics only because it does not concern their education domain. You may not be concerned, but these shall always concern you.