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All Mobiles Will Come With Dedicated Panic Button, Starting 2017

In a move to improve the safety of women in the country, the government of India has announced that all mobile phones will come with panic buttons from 1 January 2017.

The Women and Child Development Ministry has already discussed about the feasibility of introducing a ‘panic button’ in mobile phones with the manufacturers. As a result of these hectic negotiations carried out by the government this facility would be introduced in old smartphones too.

How Will It Work?

Neither the government nor the manufacturers have revealed any details about the functioning of the ‘panic button’ as of now, but it would work in a way similar to what most of the women safety apps do.

Basically, the phone would send out a distress signal to the preassi gned contacts (friends or family), including the user’s current location in the text. In case of emergency the user can long-press a combination of certain of keys to send out a panic signal to his/her close ones.

Older Phones Are Also Supported

All new phones launched in the country would have this functionality out-of-the-box. People having older phones can get the same functionality by downloading a software themselves or by visiting the manufacturer’s service centres.

“We are working towards a software that can be downloaded which will have the same function as the panic button. For those with ordinary handsets, we are talking to manufacturers so that the user can go to a service centre and get the application for free”, the official said.

According to the reports, Nirbhaya Fund, which was setup by the then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, would be involved in this project. The fund would also be used for ventures associated with enhancing the safety and security of the women in the country.

“This is one of the key projects that will be funded through the Nirbhaya fund set up by the UPA government,” a source mentioned.

It took our government more than 3 years to announce the implementation of such a project for women safety. But at least, we are going in the right direction.

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Amitabh Bachchan Beats SRK & PM Modi To Remain Most Popular Indian On Twitter; Sports Dominate Viral Tweets (Top Twitter Moments 2015)

 

3.3 crore Indians are using Twitter right now, which is almost 17% of social media users in the country. All we need to do is tap into the Twitter’s research about how Indians used their network, and get perfect idea about the pulse of India.

Twitter has just released their “The 2015 #YearOnTwitter in India” report, and there are some major surprises in store.

To start with, sports have clearly beaten politics when it comes to the virality and popularity of Tweets. The most influential moment on Twitter was theIndia-Pakistan match during Cricket World Cup in February, as it generated 118 million impressions from 1.7 million Tweets.

And, #IPL was the most popular hashtag for Indian users, as massive 9 million tweets were sent using this one.

Other influential moments includes:

• Delhi Elections: 108 Million Tweets
• Happy Diwali: 1.8 million Tweets (+ special emoji)
• Chennai Rains: 1.4 million Tweets
• 69^th Independence Day: 100,000 Salute Selfie tweets + Indian flag emoji

Besides #IPL, the most popular hashtags were:

• #SelfieWithDaughter: 375,000 Tweets
• #BiharResults: 260,000 Tweets
• #SaalEkShuruaatAnek: 179,000 Tweets
• #DDLJ20Years: 140,000 Tweets

Amitabh Bachchan Beats Shahrukh Khan & PM Modi

There were 4 million followers of PM Modi’s Twitter handle in May, 2014, which has now become 4 times to reach 16.4 million. This is the biggest gain any Indian has achieved on Twitter.

However, reigning the chart is India’s biggest superstar Amitabh Bachchan who is #1 Indian on Twitter with 18.1 million fans. He has beaten Shahrukh Khan, as he is at #2 position with 16.5 million fans. PM Modi is at #3 position with 16.4 million fans.

Aamir Khan with 15.5 million fans is at #4, while Salman Khan is at #5 with 15 millions fans. Deepika Padukone has emerged as #1 lady on Twitter India with 12.3 million fans, while Hritik Roshan is at #7, Priyanka Chopra at #8, Akshay Kumar at #9 and AR Rahman at #10.

The Most ReTweeted Tweet Of The Year

Twitter calls it the ‘Golden Tweet’, which belongs to Shahrukh Khan’s selfie with British boy band One Direction’s former member, Zayn Malik. This tweet received 140,000 retweets and was viewed by 18.3 million users from all over the world.

Large Smartphone Manufacturers May be able to Sell Smartphones Online Directly to Customers

About a couple of months back, Xiaomi opened its own local manufacturing unitin India to produce ‘Made in India’ phones and capture the market, where cheaper phone are in great need. According to reports, Global smartphone manufacturers will be able to sell their smartphones online through their own website directly to customers, without any agencies or e-commerce majors in the middle.
Xiaomi, Samsung, OnePlus and Lenovo and other handset makers may be able to sell their smartphones in India through their own platforms. but only if those devices are manufactured in India. This sounds like a good news to all the manufacturers who had pledged to start production in India by infusing more investments.
Recent changes in regulations pertaining to foreign investments have opened up plenty of doors for global smartphone manufacturers, provided they follow the ‘Make in India’ campaign led by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the country. As soon as the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion defines the term ‘manufacturers’, the global handset makers will be able to sell their products to the customers directly only.
A senior government official commented, “We are finalizing the definition so that everyone will know whether they qualify to be called a manufacturer or not. It will be a part of the press note we will issue shortly.”.
We already know Xiaomi has partnered with Foxconn Technology Group to develop handsets in India, hence it is still a grey area whether such partnerships will be benefitting the companies to sell their smartphones directly. Another question is whether all the smartphones giants who are partly assembling their phones in India would be coming into the ambit of this policy.

What does it mean for E-commerce website in India?

While we do not expect all manufacturers to straight away launch their own e-commerce platforms to directly sell their smartphones to customers online, we do expect a certain transition from diverted route to the direct route.
Smartphone sales have been at an all time high this year and key players in the market like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Infibeam etc have gained immensely from all the flash-sales and online-only models. One out of every five smartphones sold today is manufactured in India and it only makes sense for the manufacturers to sell their products through their own channels.
However, the move needs to be well thought out considering the large distribution services offered by the e-commerce websites, inventory management and marketing of the products handled by these players single-handedly. If Samsung wants to sell its smartphones through its own website in India, it would be a good chance to have complete ownership of its sales and revenues. There would be no margins cut by e-tailers and unnecessary blame-games played by the companies.
It is a matter of weighing the pros and cons effectively and coming out with a profitable solution. While some manufacturers like OnePlus might feel it is a beneficial move for the OEMs, owing to similar global strategy being followed, some like Lenovo might not have bought the idea of undergoing a complete overhaul in online selling business.
To be very honest, Amazon, Snapdeal and other e-commerce majors should not worry about the move, since they are the leaders in all the roles from selling to customer service management and have been the pioneers in the industry. Even if some manufacturers do end up going their own way, they will take some time to develop equity with their customers. Once implemented, it could mean higher profit margins for the OEMs and boost to the ‘Make in India’ campaign.

FDI in Ecommerce: Delhi HC Initiates Investigation of 21 Ecommerce Portals For Violation of Laws

The confusion and opposition on the new age digital business is refusing to abate, as a fresh round of investigations has been started against those, who dared to sell via Internet.

And it seems that our judiciary is clueless on this whole mayhem, as they are passing the buck around Govt. departments as India’s digital entrepreneurs wait with baited breath, about the exact outcome.

In a recent twist to the whole story, Delhi High Court has asked the Directorate General of Economic Enforcement (ED) to probe 21 ecommerce portals, and find out whether they have violated any FDI rules or not.

Although ED is already probing some of these mentioned ecommerce portals, this fresh directive was issued after All India Footwear Manufacturers and Retailers Association (AIFMRA), a retail body of offline footwear traders, filed their compliant at Delhi HC, in the month of July. AIFMRA claimed that these 21 ecommerce portals are selling directly to the consumers, which is against the law of land, as they are funded by foreign investors.

As Delhi High Court didn’t have any answer to this complaint from AIFMRA, they asked ED to probe the issue. In their response, Central Govt. and ED has said, “.. that out of the 21 entities with respect to which averments have been made in the petition, six are being investigated against and a decision has also been taken to investigate other entities as well”,

Interestingly, while hearing upon this same case, Delhi HC had found prima facie evidence that some ecommerce portals have indeed violated the FDI rules, and had sought Govt.’s intervention in this regard. But no concrete action came out from this ‘observation’, and the case still drags on.

Ecommerce Trouble in India

Last year, ED had suddenly found strong evidence against Flipkart regarding FDI violation, and had slapped a fine of Rs 1400 crore. We had attempted to provide an explanation to digital entrepreneurs, as to why this fine was imposed. However, by October, 2014, ED realized their mistake, and gave a clean chit to Flipkart on this violation.

In Kerala, Flipkart, Jabong and some other ecommerce portals were alreadyfined Rs 54 cr for violating tax norms in the state.

If that was not enough, then in May this year, Competition Commission of India (CCI) initiated fresh investigations against ecommerce portals for violating resale price regulations. And last month, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which is an influential body of retail traders, complained about the loud and noisy festive season sale offers by ecommerce companies. They had said that as these are market places, how can they sell directly to consumers.

And in October, Indian Pharma industry declared as all out war against ecommerce, when they staged a 24 hours bandh against them.

Although Govt. has made some really awesome plans to tackle this confusion regarding digital trade, but still things are in a limbo. For example, establishing a framework which seamlessly integrates 9 different Govt. departments into one channel may greatly help the digital entrepreneurs and visionaries to do their business peacefully, and legally.

But alas, we need to wait for some more time to get full clarity and confidence regarding the online business.

We will keep you updated as more details come in..

Norton Finds Out The Cost of Cyber Crime Which 113 Million Indians Paid Rs 16,000 Each on Average

Cyber related crimes play havoc with an average internet user; not only it induces financial loss, but it also triggers emotional loss. Norton Security, which is part of Symantec Corporation, has come out with a report which calculates the actual cost of cyber crime in India.

As per the report, Rs 16,000 is the average price of cyber crime, which 113 million Internet users from India paid. This is significantly lower than the global average of Rs 23,878, which an average Internet user paid.

The report becomes interesting, after Norton revealed that 48% of all overall Indian internet population has become a victim of cyber crime, one way or the other. This makes 113 million victims of cyber related crime in India. At a time when India is poised to overtake US in total number of Internet users, this is indeed alarming.

Norton India Country Manager Ritesh Chopra said, “Our findings reveal that consumer reservations are indeed grounded in reality. In the past year, 48 per cent of India’s online population or approximately 113 million Indians were affected by online crimes.”

This study, which was conducted across 17 countries, and covered 17,125 devices used by 18+ Internet users, revealed that 40% of all cyber crime victims were not even aware that they have been duped.

Emotional Cost of Cyber Crime

Besides the monetary loss, Norton also derived the emotional cost of being a victim of such cyber crime. Considering that data is irreplaceable, and some personal data such as images, videos, emails from near and dear ones are indeed precious, such cyber crimes can wreak havoc with the victim’s emotional state.

Ritesh further said, “Cyber crime takes a true emotional toll… Close to 8 in 10 said they would feel devastated if their personal financial information is compromised while 36 per cent said they felt sad after being affected by online crimes compared with 19 per cent globally,”

On an average, an Internet user in India will spend close to 29.6 hours dealing with the impact of cyber crime, as compared to 21 hours globally.

Interesting Highlights

• 54% of Indians believed that their credit card details can be stolen via cyber crime as opposed to actual stealing from wallet
• 60% of Indians are actually worried about cyber related crime
• 52% of Indians have been duped online (credit card details stolen or information leaked)
• 66% of Indians said that using a public restroom is safer than using a public WiFi
• 80% of Indians who can share their cars with friends, will not share their email passwords
• 64% of Indians believe that not wearing a seat belt while driving is less riskier than storing credit card details on a cloud

Crowdfunding: The New Lifeline For Startups

Crowdfunding is proving to be a serious source of capital for entrepreneurs looking to raise funds from a large pool of individuals who are believe in their ideas and above all, consider them as an attractive investment opportunity where they can park their savings.

One of the most disruptive ideas of the 21st century – crowdfunding – has become a tool for the entrepreneurs and creative thinkers who can now take their ideas directly to potential investors without waiting for conventional investors to validate their ideas. The fund raising processis via a web-based platform or social networking site and once a campaign becomes successful, it often helps garner enough publicity for the project and thus attracts VCs for the startup as well.

In June last year, SEBI, India’s stock market regulator, laid down rules on crowdfunding but limited the number of investors from whom startups could raise money to 200 and capped the individual investment in a startup to INR 60K. This was to keep up with India’s new Company Law that limits the number of investors who can involve themselves in a private placement exercise to 200. It had also prohibited companies from publicizing their events through media channels. However, these rules defeated the very premise of crowdfunding.

This year SEBI has again proposed some regulations for crowdfunding and it is believed that they will much more liberal this time. It is likely to relax the norms to create a more vibrant startup ecosystem that has given high hopes to the startups looking to raise funds via such platforms.

Worldwide, crowdfunding is an established source of funding for startups and the trend is now gaining momentum in India as well.While there are more than 450 crowdfunding platforms across the world, mostly in US and Europe, India has 15+ platforms, mostly for social causes but the number is increasing day by day. Recently, India’s first live crowdfunding event took place at Kolkata on a cruise on river Ganga. The event was organized by Nasscom’s 10,000 Startups in partnership with crowdfunding platform Catapoolt and payment gateway Payumoney.

Last year, India’s first-ever Internet of Things (IoT) pre-sales crowdfunding project, CarIQ raised funds through Catapoolt to expand their operations. Other such crowdfunding platforms for startups include pickaventure.com and fundlined.com. Similarly many startups have learnt that they can give wings to their dreams with the help of common people like you and me who now consider startups as an attractive investment option.

Startups from all domains can get on to such platform to seek funds. However, there are some important things one needs to consider to make their campaign successful. The idea of the startup should be easy to understand, because these campaigns target people who are not expert investors. Therefore, ideas that are simple and clear, are the ones that are likely to get maximum attention. It also helps if your product or service is going to impact the masses directly because then it automatically becomes more engaging.

One should also have a strong support from their own social circle such as family, friends, customers, business associates etc. because initial support from them can get you going and help you build trust and confidence among other potential investors on the platform. A good track record of the entrepreneur lends further credibility to the campaign.

Having achieved 1000% growth in the last five years, the global crowdfunding industry is extremely bullish. This industry has added $65 Bn to the economy and created more than 2,70,000 new jobs and is being looked upon as a big facilitator in rebuilding economies. According to World Bank, the growth of crowdfunding in the coming years will be led by emerging markets like Brazil, China and India. This clearly gives Indian startups a reason to cheer since it means there’s a new lifeline for over 3000 startups that are in dire need of funds and they now have a better shot at succeeding.

When is the ‘Right Time’ For Startups to Approach an Investor?

The first thing that is often in the minds of most startup entrepreneurs or even those with just a ‘bright idea’ is to find an investor who can fund their idea or startup. But if you look at it practically, when the idea is still raw and untested, it may be too soon to even think on those lines. Unless you yourself have some validation for your idea or product, how can you convince others to buy into your dream and fuel your vision?
Just like there’s a right time for everything, you have to wait for the right time to approach potential investors to fund your startup. Going to them too soon will only lead to rejection and disappointment and even if you manage to get someone interested, since you yourself may not have an idea of the potential of your startup, you may end up with a bad bargain.
Here are some things that should have a tick mark in your checklist before the thought of approaching an investor even crosses your mind. After all, you have to be able to substantiate the tall claims you make to be able to draw their attention to your concept, product or service.

Pump in your own money first

If you are genuinely convinced about the potential to convert your idea into a successful venture, you should pump in your own money, i.e., bootstrap to kick off. It’s always easier to play around with other people’s money (OPM), but when it’s your own money at stake, the drive to make things work is far higher. Chances are you’ll be able to figure things out faster and adopt a more frugal approach since your core focus will be on your product/service, so you can start generating revenues to keep the momentum going. Also, it helps the investor understand your own commitment to your business.

Commitment

If you have absolute passion and dedication to turn your idea into a viable venture, you wouldn’t treat it as a ‘second option’ and sail in two boats with a job in hand; sparing only the after-office hours or weekends to shape up or run the startup. That makes it a very comfortable scenario and it’s likely that at the very first sign of distress, you’ll ditch that brilliant idea of yours to continue with your corporate job.
And why would an investor want to fund such a venture in the first place where the entrepreneur himself/herself in unsure of the fate of the startup and wants to play safe?
Until you go the whole hog, commit yourself completely to your startup and put yourself in a ‘do or die’ situation, you will not be afraid of failing since you already have a backup plan ready. As an entrepreneur who is driven to succeed, it is important that you fear about the implications of failure and that can happen if you energies are focused solely on your startup.

Build a strong ‘core’ team

No matter how big the vision or how unique your idea; you can’t achieve it alone. And therefore, it is important to have a strong core team that shares your vision and is as excited about making it a success as you are. Select the first 10 people very carefully as these are the people who join you when you have nothing and will stand with you through all ups and downs.
While experience and competence is of paramount importance when forming a team for a startup, it is important that they are willing to multitask and look at the larger interests of your startup. A great team with proven execution capability is amongst the key factors for investors.

Show some traction

What do you think will make a greater impact on investors and your own confidence in your product/service?…Actual traction for your product or service or just some projections that you have made for your concept?
Well, nothing can beat the real thing. And that is why it makes sense to approach investors only once your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is ready and you have enough traction to convince them about its potential. That’ll help you prove that you’ve already been successful in creating a demand for the product/service viz.a viz. some projections about an idea that is still in the concept stage and even you are uncertain whether or not the sales projections will come true.

Customer testimonials

There’s no greater validation you can get for your product/service than from your customers since your life literally depends on them. Knowing how your customers feel about your product/service will give investors a clear picture of where you stand and can help mitigate their risk.
Almost every investor will use the product/service and make sure people in their network also give a thumbs-up and sometimes they even contact your existing customers randomly before deciding whether to fund this startup or not.

Conclusion

Investment cannot be the foundation of a startup because every business comes with a risk. It is your passion, product/service, team, customers that should form the core of your startup. If you have these basics right, come good times or bad, you will be able to sail through them smoothly. And that is what’ll determine your fate in the market. Isn’t that what the investors are ultimately interested in too, since their fate depends on yours?

With 400M Users, Indian Internet Population Will Beat US To Become 2nd Largest In The World!

With 400M Users, Indian Internet Population Will Beat US To Become 2nd Largest In The World!0

As per a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India will have 402 million Internet users by the end of December, 2015, thereby overtaking US in total Internet users. With 600 million+ users, China is the #1 country in Internet population. In US, 380-400 million people use Internet as of, which is almost 85% of their population.

Right now, India has 375 million Internet users.

The most interesting aspect is the speed of growth which India witnessed in Internet usage: It took us 10 years to move from 10 million to 100 million users; 3 years to move from 100 million to 200 million; but only 1 year to move from 300 to 400 million users. No other country in the world has witnessed such staggering growth.

Last year in December, we had predicted that in smartphone usage, India will soon overtake US.

And, this is just the beginning, as we have only achieved 17-20% Internet penetration as of now. With Digital India campaign and smartphone usage explosion, we are well on course to become the largest Internet user base in the world.

Mobile internet is the driving force behind this explosive stats, as in Urban India, there are now 197 million mobile internet users, which is 67% more than last year. At the same time, rural India witnessed 99% surge in mobile internet users as there are now 80 million users.

Urban Females Overtake Males in Internet Usage

Compared to 71% male, only 29% of females in India are using the web; however, the growth is slowly catching up. Male internet users are growing at a rate of 50%, while female internet users are growing at a rate of 46%.

If we talk about urban areas, then female users have overtaken men in adopting this new medium. Compared to 28% growth of male users, females are growing at a rate of 39%.

Non-working women are leading the charge here, as the growth rate among this demography is 97%, compared to 36% in school going girls and 26% in college going girls.

The Next Big Market: Rural India

In rural India, 88% of Internet users are male, but the growth is intense, even overtaking urban India. New female users from rural areas are adapting Internet at a growth rate of 61%, while males are growing at a rate of 79%.

But the most exciting news for rural India growth is the demography: 75% of Internet users from rural India are in the age group of 18-30 years.

More Indians Open to Internet

IAMAI carried a survey across 35 cities, wherein they asked non-Internet users about their intensions of adapting the web. The good news is that, 11.4 million non-Internet users from these 35 cities have confessed that they will be using Internet in the next one year. And 7.6 million among them will be doing so from a mobile.

Yes, challenges do exist. As per AKAMAI, there are 1 billion people without Internet in India (which must have reduced now), and our broadband speed is 2nd slowest in Asia. But the changes are visible, and we are moving very fast – India will soon overtake Japan, UK and Germany to become World’s 3^rd largest economy by 2050 and complimenting this economic growth, we are actually on the cusp of an explosive Internet penetration in India.

Adjust the Alignment of Sidebar on Blogger

Adjust the Alignment of Sidebar on Blogger

If you are new on blogger, you get a ready-made page layout that allows you to post your articles or add new widgets. Many bloggers prefer changes to their layout to modify the blog and keep them in a neat and clean format, By the using of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) you can adjust the alignment of your sidebar. Here in my post i will share how to align your blogger sidebar?

To Align Blogger Sidebar

Here we go :

·         Login to your blogger account.

·         Go to Dashboard > Design > edit HTML

·         In the code window find these lines..

div#sidebar-wrapper {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
text-align: right;
}

Change the value of alignment 'right' to 'left'. Code will look like below:

div#sidebar-wrapper {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
text-align: left;
}

Save it and you are Done!

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Any suggestion or question please post in the comment below

YouTube Launches its Own Music Service, YouTube Music

YouTube, by far the largest video site in the world, with over 1 billion viewers, is still unable to make profits. Over last year or so, Google has got especially aggressive and launched various new features to improve profitability. Now, YouTube has finally announced the launch of it’s music app YouTube Music for iOS and Android, which aims to target the likes of Apple Music and Spotify. Apple Music has recently gained momentum by launching its app for Android users, which brings more competition to Google’s Android.

YouTube has been a long-serving application to users for streaming videos by their favourite musicians. One can also explore new musicians and music and it has helped a lot of budding musicians showcase their talent. Now, you will be able to listen to the music alone from YouTube without having to worry about locking your phone or closing the app. The music will play in the background like Google Play music, specially linked to YouTube.

Just like other applications like Apple Music and Spotify, YouTube Music also has specially curated playlists for you depending on your favourite genres.

T Jay Fowler, YouTube’s director for product management, said, “We want to do even more to support artists and all the fans who turn to YouTube to discover music, so we’re making the experience even better with a brand new YouTube Music app. With YouTube Music, you’ll get a completely new type of experience, designed to make discovering music on YouTube easier than ever”. Initially, the application is available only in the US and is expected to arrive everywhere else very soon.

How does YouTube Music distinguish itself from its rivals?

Considering Spotify and Apple Music are available across Android and iOS for quite some time now, YouTube’s Music app has big shoes to fill in. However, for the time being YouTube is offering nothing extra as compared to its rivals, which is a big let down for the fans around the world. There are billions of users of YouTube, but there is no USP that sets the music streaming app apart.

Even then, there is one interesting feature in the app. YouTube s providing an option to bundle YouTube Red with YouTube Music to provide extra benefits.YouTube Red was announced late last month to provide ad-free video streaming to everyone. The partnership will allow you to listen to music completely ad-free for $10 per month, and give you an option of listening to the audio or watching the video at the same time. This also means added functionality in YouTube app so that you can close the application and still listen to the audio.

YouTube has primarily one upper hand in this whole game – Their music collection. It’s unmatched. Nearly every music ever created is on Youtube in some form or the other. There are millions of songs on YouTube which might never be available on Apple Music and Spotify, which means the users will have more choices in terms of music on YouTube.

Also, Apple Music and Spotify require the users to listen to songs and download them, which is more like downloading a paid full-version of any application. On the other hand, YouTube does not need any subscriptions since watched videos are already added to your playlist in the Music app. Seamless synchronization between the Audio and Video apps and offline listening are added benefits to the users.

As seen by reviews and comments from critics, it looks like the Music app is nothing unique right now, even though it is quite late in the business. However, due to a link with Google account and YouTube Red, the app can become a hit amongst both Musicians and Audiophiles.

Currently, Youtube Music is available only in the US and should be launched in other countries in coming months. You can download Youtube Music app on theGoogle Play store or the App Store

How Social Media Addiction is Affecting Our Life Style?

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Even before our routine chores we wish to log in our Facebook accounts and check updates. Isn’t it?

This shows how greatly we have been impacted by social media. In buses or on bus stops, offices, malls, movie theatres, flights we now find people tuned to their cell phones or laptops updating their status every moment or looking for something interesting. But is this addiction doing any good to any of us?

Read on to know how social media is affecting our lives.

In 21^st century, the social networking sites are considered as a way to socialize, connect and develop relations. The social media has totally changed the social, political, and personal scenario over the last few years.

But is Facebook able to build strong relations as the letters and physical meetings? Is this virtual platform worth to spend time updating and socializing?

None of us has forgotten Danny Bowman, the 19-year-old UK resident who attempted suicide due to his obsession of taking ‘selfies,’

No doubt technological advancements have definitely brought the world closer but what’s the use if the technology can cause harm to our life itself?

Social Media Addiction

As per statistics, 63% of American use Facebook daily and 40% of users log on to the site multiple times in a day. Everyone has different reasons to use social media but ultimately we are addicted to it in some form or the other.

According to Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine University at Mesa, AZ, the major reason most of us use social media is for self-distraction and boredom relief.

She adds “Therefore, social media is delivering a reinforcement every time a person logs on,” “For those who post status updates, the reinforcements keep coming in the form of supportive comments and ‘likes.’ And of course we know that behaviors that are consistently reinforced will be repeated, so it becomes hard for a person who has developed this habit to simply stop.” Such behaviors are a clear indication of social media addiction which can ruin our personal lives, health and even affect us emotionally.

The following points describe how adversely social media addiction can affect our lives.

Effect on Privacy- Personal Information Gone Public

If you are exposing your personal information on social media sites then you are vulnerable to exploitation. Now days there are increasing number of consumer cases regarding privacy issues. Once your personal information is posted on social media it can be seen by others and even shared to spread it further.

It’s not bad to upload some of your pictures, update your basic information. But if you are obsessed to continuously upload then it prove to be potentially harmful for you. This is specially the case with teenagers who share their private information just to be a popular figure among their peer group. That’s why many parents are concerned about their child’s safety.

Social media addiction gets so extreme that it makes you compare yourself with others and even creates a fear of being missed out. So once if you get addicted it becomes difficult to get out of it.

Mental and Emotional Impact- Leading to Boredom, Loneliness

According to a study at the University of Michigan, the ones who used Facebook more frequently were much unhappier as compared to the ones who use it less.

The time people spend on social media sites has increased drastically especially among students and young adults which has greatly impacted us mentally and emotionally.

Although it seems that social media sites can bring happiness, increase connectivity and develop relations but the impacts are completely opposite. Spending time on social media leads to sadness, boredom, and loneliness. It even ruins our personal relationships (family and friends).

A survey was conducted by University of Stanford to find out the impact of social media.

The survey was done on a sample group of people and the results were as follows:

• 50% people from the sample group of people said using social networking sites has made their lives worse. They said when they compare themselves with others it affects their self-esteem.
• 66% among the group said they found it difficult to relax or sleep after using the social networking sites.
• 25% even claimed they faced difficulties at work or relationships due to the social media.
• Some 50+ even accepted that they feel tensed say they feel worried or uncomfortable if they are not able to use Facebook or email.