Are algorithms thinking for the WhatsApp generation?

Are the new generation misleading the social media or are the youth being unwittingly led to a trap by new age communication tools.

This was the major point of contention during the discussion on 'What's Up New Kerala?' at the Manorama News Conclave 2019 in Kochi on Friday.

Actor Parvathy Thiruvoth sounded deeply let down by the social media. She is proud that the younger lot, including herself, had become aggressive in many ways. “Such a stand was the result of certain realisations,” she said.

But here is her note of caution. “It is irresponsible to take a public position without reflecting on it in a personal space,” she said.

She is still not clear how to integrate her private personal space with the social space teeming with almost the whole of the world.

Parvathy has been a victim of online attacks. But deep reflection seems to have struck some doubts in her. “I too take out my personal anger on strangers in the online world. I am not sure whether I am doing to others what many have done to me,” she said.

It was Alappuzha district collector Adeela Abdulla, the first woman to crack the civil services from Malabar, who belled the cat. “It is good that the new generation is independent minded. It is also nice to follow ones thoughts. But in an age of artificial intelligence you have to ask whether your thoughts are your own thoughts. Personal conscience is good but what if our thoughts are actually thought by algorithms or artificial intelligence,” Adeela said.

The IAS official feels that algorithms have already, quite imperceptibly, made our choices. She gives the example of a weaning food, apple puree, that she chose for her third child. “This was not something I had given my first two kids. Soon I realised that this was forced on me by algorithms,” she said.

Parvathy said she had the best days of her life when she had tuned out of social media for four months recently.

Abhilash Tomy, the naval officer who was the the first Indian to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world under sail in 2013, seemed to suggest that Parvathy and Adeela were taking things to paranoic levels.

Tomy looks at the social media churn as just a transition phase. “When steel was first discovered, it might have been used to kill somebody. Social media is new to us. Eventually people will reach a maturity when they will realise what is right and what is wrong,” he said.

Tomy also feels that social media is a huge boon.

“When I started out my first solo expedition, no one seemed interested. But at sea, I used to post messages and videos. When I completed voyage, I had 1.5 crore hits,” Tomy said.

Parvathy, though she had no doubt whatsoever about Tomy's following, sounded a word of caution.

“Hits and followings can be bought, and that is the problem,” she said.

“My father sends me forwards and he is heavily influenced. He believes these popular tweets and forwards to be true. I have just not been able to convince him that a large number of views does not mean quality or good influence,” Parvathy added.

Tomy took this sportingly and politely reiterated his conviction that things will turn out to be better.

“People are publishing the fake followers celebrities have. Soon we will reach a stage when things will make sense,” Tomy said.

Young Congress MP Ramya Haridas, too, a bit wary of the social media. Ramya is concerned about the substitution of healthy personal interactions with social media activity.

“A friend of mine recently told me that a child she knew had no idea what his grandfather says but is clear what Donald Trump has said,” she said.