As part of the efforts, on 17th September 2020, Mr Vikram Singh and Ms Pratishtha Arora conducted a workshop with students of K.R Mangalam University, Haryana where they engaged with them to bring the discourse of online safety, privacy, social media for social change and hate speech in discussion.
During the pandemic, when everyone is working from home and lives are more dependent on Internet, it becomes extremely important to gaze upon the safety mechanisms of it. Online classes, surfing, chatting with friends, reading and gaming are some of the common online activities which the youth is engaged in today. To look into and educate about it, SMM is conducting series of workshops with students pan India.
The workshop was conducted online through Microsoft Teams where students and the coordinator connected with the trainers. The young enthusiast participants were eager to learn the safety features and privacy control mechanisms. When we look at the negativity on Social Media, the trainers also deep dived into the concept of Hate Speech where they were informed how to be good netizens. When we look at youth we consider them to the change makers and this was kept in focus during the workshop.
The concept of ‘Social Media’ is not really new to the young minds as they are exploring and surfing internet every day. The challenge is only how safely internet is being used. The trainers during the workshop also highlighted upon the social identity of the user and how it should be like in the real world. This helped the students to understand the difference between the real and the virtual world.
“In the online world we need to gear up students about the safety approaches and make them conscious about being a good netizen. The young minds are the future of change and it will only happen through timely discussions and engagement with them.” Pratishtha Arora
The workshop was an eye opener for the students as it unfolded some of the new concepts for the students following which they very persistently asked their queries. Some of the questions which were asked by the students were:
- How can we more securely keep our social media accounts safe?
- What are the added security features of Facebook?
- How can we restore our account after being hacked?
- How can we avoid from our account being hacked?
“I am happy to see how the students are eager to learn about the safety and security of Internet and online world. It’s time that we bring these discussions at the elementary level so that they are aware about the etiquettes to be followed in the online world.” Vikram Singh