The Net’s darker side
Facebook, like twitter and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), are some of the social network resources on the internet. The internet (or “Net” in its short form) which is a network of networks of millions of computers was “born” about five decades ago. Due to the limited space of this column, the history and the imperatives that […]
Facebook, like twitter and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), are some of the social network resources on the internet. The internet (or “Net” in its short form) which is a network of networks of millions of computers was “born” about five decades ago. Due to the limited space of this column, the history and the imperatives that led the US Defense Department to create the Advance Research Projects Administration Net (ARPANet) would be left to be narrated another day. While benefits of the internet to humanity are numerous, the consequences of its evils are today prompting many to interrogate its being a necessary evil!
The internet connects people from a diverse range of cultures and countries who use it to swap experiences, debate points of view and learn about places they might never see or may never have heard about, but for the internet. The Net provides enterprising individuals and companies with tools to market their goods and services. Consumers, too, are offered a convenient forum for purchasing goods or paying for services without leaving home. The internet is used to track down criminals and/or trace crime scenes. You can visit the parliament online; watch the Imam at the Holy Mosque of ka’abah in Makkah or the Pope in Vatican as they lead congregations in prayers live; download materials for scholarly researches; and many more. The Net avails individuals with unrestricted access to vast information; some very useful and others very damaging.
The internet is not only a global center of evils but also an “instructor” that teaches such evils; from pornography (in the form of text, audio, video and photos) to gambling, duping and other financial crimes; from manufacture of explosive devices to production of poisonous substances. ATM-related scams and hacking of e-mail addresses are common challenges faced by Nigerians who subscribe to internet-based facilities today. Only recently, the Niger State Governor Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu raised an alarm over his e-mail account which he said was hacked. The Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola equally alerted the public to disregard messages from his e-mail account particularly those soliciting for financial assistance as such were emanating from miscreants who hacked his e-mal account. All these reveal the Net’s darker side. The internet, needless to say, has attracted its share of weirdoes in search of prey. We are certainly living in dangerous times.
While acknowledging the Net to be at the center of modern information and communication technology, it is also the easiest and stress-free service by which internet users especially youths are tempted to lure their unsuspecting victims. The internet, daily, destroys more structures of morality than we strive (through religion and culture) to inculcate in our young men and women. The fact that any internet user could upload and download any material, good or bad, potentially puts the orthodox practice of revealed religions in critical jeopardy in the same manner it makes our rich cultural values stand the risk of sullying.
It is far from mincing words to assert that there is any aspect of technology that revolutionized man’s life style on earth particularly in the past one decade more than the internet. The social network resource of the Net, for instance, is gradually challenging some religious aspects of our life as married men and women who should be chaste. A friend recently told me how the husband of his niece had to complain about the wife’s wholesale making of “friends” on facebook as if she were unmarried; to the effect that she spends more time with phone in her hands than she spends with any other thing or anyone daily. She was invited along with her husband by my friend’s family for discussion.
After admitting the allegations made by her husband, my friend and his brothers unanimously confiscated their niece’s handset. She was reminded that her religion, Islam, prohibits a married woman from making friends arbitrarily particularly from the opposite gender. Even if the friends were of the same gender with her, such must be with the express consent of her husband. The husband was advised by my friend’s family (his in-laws) to get another phone for his wife; preferably one that does not have facilities to access the internet. The manner in which my friend and his brothers resolved the matter (which if left unsettled could threaten their niece’s marriage) is religiously commendable.
The social network community, as an internet resource on mobile phones, has its negative consequences on the conventional mode of interaction among us. A senior colleague narrated to me how he felt embarrassed during a recent visit to a family. He explained that he was invited during the just concluded Ramadan by a highly placed personality to have breakfast (iftar) with his family. He honoured the invitation but was disappointed at what transpired. Throughout his stay with the family during and after the iftar, every member of the family including the Oga/Maigida was busy with his/her handset; (most likely) interacting with facebook friends and ignoring their visitor who was sitting before them!
To curb the evils of the Net, schools can obtain software that can prevent access to information deemed objectionable. We can as individuals equip our computers at home with products that can filter programmes and/or disable the machines from being used at certain hours especially when children should be sleeping or doing their school assignments. Nonetheless, mobile handsets yet remain the greatest challenge in fighting the menace of the Net. Government must do something to regulate the use of internet resources. There are countries that have, as a policy, blocked sites that are injurious to the already shrinking moral fabrics of the society. May Allah (SWT) guide us to collectively suppress the evils of man’s handiwork, amin.