Sharjah24: “You need to learn, read, and go beyond the headlines,” said South African producer-director Firdoze Bulbulia, urging the youth at the 9th Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth to be more wary of all that is portrayed on social media.
“To me, what is scary is a generation that is not reading between the lines and not reading the whole story,” said the media trainer in a freewheeling talk on ‘Film Literacy’, moderated by SIFF Junior Juror Noor Saleh at Al Jawaher Reception and Convention Centre, Sharjah, on Thursday.
The session explored the impact of social media on youth and enhanced understanding of the terms and technologies that have emerged as a result of the massive Internet penetration and mushrooming of social media platforms that are today instrumental in altering perceptions and values amongst young people.
“What we do is to train young people to understand everybody’s perspectives,” stated Bulbulia, Director at Moments Entertainment and chairperson of the Children and Broadcasting Foundation for Africa.
The award-winning film producer said the onus of safeguarding young people lay with parents even as she advised her young audience to be film- and media-literate and to protect themselves and their friends from the dangers of social media.
While acknowledging social media as a good tool especially in less developed nations in Africa, she highlighted the negative impact arising out of fabrication of news, the disturbing trend of using deep fake technology and the rising prevalence of cancel culture, and the detrimental impact of these on the mental welfare of youngsters.
Responding to a question, she explained how cancel culture and deep fake technology are often employed to destroy successful or popular individuals.
The writer-educator advised: “The best thing to do is to first become comfortable in your own space and when you are solid and clear about who you are, you will be able to engage with everything else. We need to be active citizens and activists, rather than blindly accepting what is forced on us.”
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