Social media: connecting people or spreading rumors..

Despite of all the advantages we have from the social media evolution and how it made our lives a whole lot easier than it was 10 years ago, we can't deny that there are a number of disadvantages that have affected our lives negatively in the Omani society, one of which is: spreading rumors.

It seems as if almost people have lost interest in what these social media sites or apps were made for- which is communicating- and are more interested in using it in different ways like spreading rumors through Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, WeChat and much more other. Not a day goes by that you don't receive at least 2 or 3 broadcasts about various news that are completely bizarre and make you question some people’s mentalities . Notice how rumors increase around days that we have something going on across the country, like weather changes, holidays, car accidents, people’s deaths… etc.  

When such rumors are spreading it leaves people confused and mystified they don’t know who to trust and what to believe or not. A lot of people live at a high level of  suspiciousness and become more and more skeptical about these types of news which shouldn't happen because such news should be taken seriously and trusted and no one should allow themselves to twist them and scare others! And what makes it worse is when mostly everyone keeps on copying whatever they read and sending it to their contacts without even taking a minute to check if it was false news!

Not to mention that some rumors can validate people’s privacy when false information is sent about them including real names, pictures, and voice messages. And it keeps on getting passed on to others and lame jokes are made about them and are also spread to recap the rumors!  People would do such things out of boredom, or to get revenge, or even to get attention but what they don’t realize is how much harm they are causing, for the fact that these days rumors spread faster than anyone can imagine and it’s almost impossible to take it back!

I really hope this “habit” would eventually come to an end, any types of rumors whether they are personally directed or not will cause harm and nothing good will come out of it. People should be more aware of the beneficial or at least harmless ways of using these social media sites, if not? Then I think it’s better that all this energy is poured elsewhere and to benefit themselves or the future of the country.