LETTERS: As a mother of teenagers and young adults, I accept that social media is part of their world. It is only natural for us to discuss what they see there. Recent discussions on two viral videos concerned me, thus warranting me to pen this.
One video was about a Malaysian woman who screamed and swore at security guards for doing their job. Her sister was not allowed into a crowded establishment as she was not wearing a face mask. The other video was about a man committing suicide on live stream by shooting himself.
As the children have watched the video of the woman, I watched it, too. They haven't watched the suicide stream, so I didn't watch it and emphasised that they should not watch it.
We did discuss what drove the man to suicide and the trauma it would've caused his followers who were watching, and to the viewers, especially the young ones who unwittingly saw the clip on social media.
What struck me about the local scenario was that the clip was put up by the unmasked sister herself, who was proud of the fact that she got a mask for free from a passer-by, most likely someone who wanted to spare the guards from further harassment after she kicked up a fuss. There was no contrition, in fact, there was a feeling of entitlement.
What worried me was the unabashed promotion of themselves to get traffic to their accounts, perhaps an indicator of diminishing values in society. If you have been following the antics of some social media influencer wannabes, you will understand this is not an isolated case.
Why have we veered from our values of respect? We must respect ourselves and others, if not respect our cultural values, regardless of your personal faith. In this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world we live in, have our values also gone down the drain?
I discussed with a colleague about where our higher education system is heading. We were worried that the big picture seems to be about what the industry wants and is economic-oriented, with values given only lip service.
As educators, preparing students for the working world should only be one of the concerns, but not the major, much less the sole concern, of educational institutions. The technical knowledge and skills we teach them may become obsolete five years upon graduation, but general skills such as analytical thinking and cultural literacy skills should continue to help them.
More importantly, the values that we nurture in them will tide them over in this complex world. Part of values-based education is the building of the inner strength of the person.
We were struck by the news of a girl who committed suicide based on the voting done on her social media account.
This tragic case highlighted the fragility of a person's selfhood, but more worryingly, it highlighted the sinister side of us — those who voted for her to commit suicide.
Educating our children is not just about preparing them for a career, but also about nurturing self-worth and respect for us and others to make us stronger as a community.
LIHANNA BORHAN
International Islamic University Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times