"YES," 21st Century is ours; don't miss it!

Oken Jeet Sandham *

Keep sharing your ideas and thoughts, and continue discussing and debating in the amazing "Social Media Networks" for the improvement of lives, governances and saving our Mother Planet. The 21st Century is ours, don't miss it!

For decades, we had been wondering how to connect and share many things with like-minded people in our small jurisdictions. One thing I honestly believe and it may be the same in everyone's belief that most of us had been victims of corruptions, defective systems and misrules. It was extremely difficult to fight against several man-made menaces. Dear friends, we are in the age of "The Internet (Cyber Age)." We have seen amazing "Social Media Networks" coming in along with the arrival of the God-given "Internet." We have already experienced many through "Social Media sites."

Social Media Network, Facebook alone, has now over 1.59 billion monthly active users. There are hundreds of Social Media networking sites in the world today. About 80% of youth including students use Facebook. All the political bosses including Presidents, Prime Ministers, even Kings and Queens have owned their own "Social Media networking sites" particularly the Facebook. The President of the USA Barak Obama had extensively used Facebook during his last Presidential election campaigns and he acknowledged that the voters across the United States had been greatly influenced by the Facebook.

In India, in the last 16th Lok Sabha elections, we all saw how Narendra Modi had used Facebook for his election campaigns. In fact, he had reportedly hired media professionals from the US to work on his Social Media sites at the time of his last Lok Sabha election campaigns.

Here is another amazing Text Messaging app, WhatsApp. The WhatsApp certainly does not fall under Social Media, as it is not a network like Facebook. Your WhatsApp contacts are yours alone and nobody else can connect with your contacts through you. The WhatsApp Messenger is an instant messaging app for smartphones and it enables users of select feature phones to use the Internet to communicate.

In addition to text messaging, WhatsApp can be used to send images, videos and audio media messages. Locations can also be shared through the use of integrated mapping features. WhatsApp has also rolled out the most awaited feature of voice calling throughout the globe recently. In February 2016, WhatsApp was the most globally popular messaging app with more than 1 billion active users, with India alone boasting a user base of more than 70 million.

WhatsApp is one the most convenient and fastest messengers today. WhatsApp service is so easy, unlike Email that one does not need to have the basic knowledge of computer. In fact, people stop using their email services sending their pictures to somebody by attaching the images. The WhatsApp has already cut the so-called amazing Email services into sizes. The people call Email services as outdated today.

Now almost all the people particularly youth and students have sophisticated mobile phones with the pre-installed Social Media apps and the WhatsApp Messenger app, besides other messaging apps. And with the advent of such fast modern digital technologies in our lives, the people including professionals, youth, students, etc. have been conveniently using the services.

The modern technologies are such that you can not only send instant images, video and audio media messages to others but also upload those materials instantly in Social Media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. from your mobile phones.

Today we must admit that there have been drastic changes in the traditional media activities in the world with the advent of the "Social Media." The definition of media has been reinvented with the coming of "Social Media" and every individual's lifestyle has been significantly influenced in a shortest possible time. The traditional media has to accept this "Social Media" revolution. We cannot reject this. There is no way except adapting to this "Social Media revolution." In fact, every newspaper, journal or magazine has its own Social Media sites over and above their own Online Publications.

Millions of people around the world have been throwing millions of fresh thoughts and ideas daily to the Social Media sites. We should not feel hesitant in sharing our thoughts and ideas, and they are meant for it with the sole objective of improving our lives, relationships and governances and preserving Mother Planet.

Forget about connecting like-minded people in our small jurisdictions, we are now able to connect the world in our fingertips. In fact, nothing is left undiscussed and undebated under the Sun today.

Now, my simple questions are: "What should be our roles in this fast changing world, and what should we do with the amazing - Social Media Networks?" Can we use these amazing "Social Media Networks" for improving our lives, Governances and saving our Mother Planet?" Are we not going to use them for our better future? Are we not going to use them for bringing changes? Are they not for us? Is the 21st Century not for us? My big Answer is "Yes" - the 21st Century is for us.