FB And Your Emotions

Knowing the danger that Facebook poses and working on ways to reduce its impact is something that needs urgent action.

- Prithwis Mukerjee

FACEBOOK IS THE mythical 800-lb gorilla in the media world that, as the original joke goes, “sits down wherever it wants to”. With 1.2 billion pairs of eyeballs eyeing it every day, it has an audience greater than any American, European or Asian TV news network, newspaper or online news portal. This immense reach also makes it the most effective medium of entertainment. In societies where it has crossed a critical threshold of penetration, it has become the most potent mobilising force in politics and all this eventually translates into Facebook being one of the most valuable companies in the world.

We know that information is power. We also know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Should we be wary of Facebook? Consider the following.

In the Foundation series of iconic science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, we have the villain, a mutant psychopath called the Mule, using popular musical concerts as a mechanism, a medium, to transmit subliminal messages to an unsuspecting audience, that demoralises the population and breaks its resistance to the Mule’s political hegemony.

On December 17, 1997, in a chilling realisation of this fictional scenario, many news channels, including the New York Times and CNN, reported from Tokyo, that “the bright flashing lights of a popular TV cartoon became a serious matter Tuesday evening, when they triggered seizures in hundreds of Japanese children. In a national survey, the Tokyo fire department found that at least 618 children had suffered convulsions, vomiting, irritated eyes, and other symptoms after watching Pokemon.”

Can a mass media platform be used to meddle or otherwise with, or influence, human minds, en masse? As an early adopter and ardent