SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUTH VIOLENCE: A CASE STUDY OF SLUM AREAS OF MIRPUR, AZAD JUMMU AND KASHMIR

Abstract

Youth violence is becoming a highly threat-full social phenomena endangering peace of societies. Recorded disparities and gross inequalities faced by residents of slums results to generate dissent among youth of these localities, especially in developing countries. In this situation social media becomes a medium to exploit these fault-lines and infiltrate violent tendencies in youth’s behavior. Increasing use of social media by majority of youth in slums has grave implications on their behavioral choices which can trigger violence. This research aims to illustrate the relationship between social media and youth violence in slum areas of Mirpur Azad Jummu and Kashmir. The situation of the slums is portrayed using code of street theory according to which a set of informal rules govern the interpersonal relations in slums, characterized by increased level of resource deprivation and lack of public services. In this situation the code of street theory identifies youth adaptation of violence is more likely to meet their ends. Quantitative research design was adopted to gather data from purposively selected sample of two hundred respondents mainly youth residents of slums, with aid of survey questionnaires. The study found that majority of youth of these slums is social media users with varied nature of use depending on level of their educational history. Social media was seen promoting content and debates that have potential to trigger violence but no direct relationship between social media and youth media was evident. It was deduced from the results that there is lesser role of social media in causing violence as there is presence of other precursor of violence, among youth of slums of Mirpur Azad Jummu and Kashmir.