Fakhar-e-Alam
PESHAWAR, Apr 13 (APP): “Every era on earth would be worse than the previous era and the best era is in which I am living” were the golden words of our holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). So, thereon, races after races and generations after generations, we are seeing ethical deterioration, moral turpitude and sectarian squalor.
This deterioration was gradual for ages since the social media onslaught that validated another saying of the Holy Prophet; “A time will come when your sins committed in solitude would ruin your good deeds on the Day of Judgment.”
These assertions can be seen validly applying on present era as unprecedented use of social media, if though transforming global communication scenario through unparalleled connectivity and information sharing, was also rapidly deteriorating our moral values.
Immoral videos, obnoxious stuff and fake news posted on social media had started causing negative effects on the social fabric in countries like ours. Most of time the people, especially political followers and the youth are seen busy in abusing, mud-slinging and character assassination of rivals on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter now X, Instagram and TikTok.
“Morality refers to principles that govern human behavior in terms of right and wrong and ethical theories emphases duty-based morality. But, both of these are challenged by social media onslaught,” said Dr Jamil Khan, a professor at Peshawar University.
How these platforms work is really thought provoking. If anybody is seeing any religious post, listening a sermon or recitation, he also finds some semi-nude pictures of white models or celebrities. This is very lethal for nurturing minds of youth who can be swayed by any such post or video easily and parents and saner segment of every society are extremely worried.
“Besides increasing obscenities and vulgarity; another challenge associated to social media is online anonymity – significantly increasing aggressive behavior in youth,” Dr Jamil said.
If we go beyond moral aspect for a while, excessive scrolling and searching also cost much to our people with even labor class earning Rs 1000 a day is seen massively scrolling.
According to estimates, internet users in Pakistan swelled to a record 111 million in January this year with about 71.90 million people using social media. This tendency is alarming in countries like Pakistan with weaker checks and balances systems in place.
In our country, around 188.9 million cellular connections (77.8 percent) of total population are active, Facebook users have jumped to record 44.50 million; 71.70 million population use YouTube, 17.30 million Instagram, 54.38 million TikTok and 30.21 million snapchat.
No doubt there is lot of productive information on these platforms and thousands of our youth study and work online and earn millions of dollars. But, this ratio is minimal as compared to those fruitlessly scrolling these media platforms.
In the modern world these social media tools are also used for narratives building and uprising and Arab spring is a valid example where rulers were overthrown through social media sponsored uprising.
“Intolerance and behavior changes mostly caused by social media invasion emerged as big challenge and necessary laws and regulations are required to protect people especially youth and children from its negative effects,” remarked Prof. Dr Muhamnad Ibrahim, former Director Education.
“Physical absence and lack of accountability has encouraged users to act unethically and irrespective of public sentiments and social media continues to become a breeding ground for moral decline,” he mentioned.
Therefore, these experts have urged educational institutions to integrate digital ethics and media literacy into their curriculums, teach users about use of social media platforms and interact responsibly and the parents to have strict vigil on their children in use of social media.
Ikhtair Wali, Adviser to the Prime Minister says the government has introduced amendments in PECA (Prevention of Electronic Cybercrimes Act 2025) to control cyber-crimes, fake news and immoral videos through legal means.
“Although there is much hue and cry on these amendments, but those objecting it must also understand where we were leading morally,” he said. “These laws are not for stopping flow of information but checking immorality and obscenity.”
He said previously those spreading fake news and immoral substance could flee easily but after amendments those found guilty of spreading fake news or uploading immoral videos would face imprisonment and huge fines.
Since firewalls have been placed to check flow of obscene and objectionable material, still there are many routes to access these sites.
The experts believe that promoting digital ethics, strict laws and regulations and fostering responsible online behaviors, can reduce risks of moral turpitude and create a more ethical digital environment to create a tolerant, responsible and prosperous society.
Another dangerous tendency emerging rapidly is that our youth have starting keeping aloof of families, away from playgrounds and syllabus books meaning that we are going to have an unhealthy and slack generation – a bulge challenging our integrity and cohesion.
Therefore, the government and companies running social media platforms and parents and civil society must collectively evolve a strategy to counter this onslaught and filter content that encourage negativity and ruin our moral values.