Two Social Surfers Mr. Amitabh Kumar, Head, Media and communication, Centre for Social Research and Ms. Arnika Singh, Project, Co-ordinator, center for Social research, conducted an interactive workshop at RNB Global University Bikaner.
The trainers had fun interacting with students on the topic of Online Safety. The discourse on safe and healthy online interaction was weaved into the theme of freedom of expression, intricacies of communication – both online and offline and healthy perception towards people from all genders and social strata. The students were both undergraduates and post graduates and mostly in the age group of 18 to 21 years. They had fun participating in Tangram exercise and enjoyed the video clip from the movie ‘pk’ which is an exciting way of discussing communication techniques. The trainers emphasized upon the importance of enabling Two Factor Authentication, choosing Trusted Contacts, checking on servers that Facebook has retained a log of and creating strong passwords.
The trainers discussed the problems women face when they use social media and the female students in the colleges could relate to the discussion. Being stalked and victimized by fake account creation and being vulnerable to being judged by regressive people were the common grouses. The male students were sensitized on respectful conduct on social media and extending support and encouragement to their female friends for using the same.
Presence on social media is a mark of existence, exposure to the world and hence having a stake in it. The Social Surfers were happy to see girls fight the constraints by not only creating a social media identity but also be proud of it.