Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Support for Social Media Must Continue

Keeping in view the importance of the social media, the first week of Saratan (23-29 July) of Afghan calendar is being marked as ‘social media week’ in Afghanistan for the third year. The main objective of this week is to elaborate the importance of and create awareness about the role of social media in Afghanistan. The government is yet to recognize this week.

Networking with people from different circles is now an important part of many Afghan youths’ life, and the social networking sites available today, make this interaction even easier. Like in other countries of the world, the social media has been rapidly growing in Afghanistan too, allowing people to express them more than ever before. According to estimates, there are more than a million social media users in Afghanistan most of whom use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Social media has transformed the way information is exchanged. Social media sites like blogs and social news sites are a nice way to keep up with topics of our interest. Users can also discuss about issues on forums with other people, and thus share their knowledge. Through social networking sites, people can also send updates about our life to others.

News travels much faster on social media than through any other medium. Whether it is an update on a friend’s health, or an important issue in the society, social media lets us catch up with news, which we may have missed on the traditional medium.  

The policy of the Afghan government to allow people use this media without any serious limitations is appreciable. The social media will no doubt play a very crucial role in increasing awareness among the masses of society and they can freely object the policies and decision of the government or any other issue to pertaining to Afghanistan or the world. It is also an easy and cost-efficient mean for the public offices and other organizations to send their updates to the people in timely fashion.

A great number of high officials of the government, MPs, artists, authors, journalist and other public figures have created Facebook pages and twitter accounts to share their activities, knowledge, news and other updates with the people. If these all occur so conveniently, it is because of the important role the social media sites have.

Therefore, the government must continue to support responsible use of social media. Meanwhile, it must refrain from imposing any kind restriction on social media users. It must also recognize and create more awareness about the social media week in Afghanistan so that negative thoughts about this useful mean of communication can be eliminated.