As our society evolves, the way we share information is changing. And we are grappling with this difficult evolution today.

In the society we live, prudish as we might want to believe we are, change is driving us one way. We are talking about media literacy – the ability to access, analyse, evaluate, and create media in a variety of forms.

Pornographic videos are flooding on social media. Court cases are being moved here and there. Our society is waking up to new reality.

What is worrying is that our young people could increasingly use new social media platforms to ruin their own lives.

Where is education?

Recently, Paro police forwarded a defamation case involving six individuals. The police found that four men and two women from Paro were involved in circulating the clip of a woman in an intimate act with her partner.

This is no new case. We have had such cases where even high profile people were involved.

The law has to be fair, or the law must give up. That is where we are.

More such cases will come in the future. That is why media literacy is critically important in our society. We have stakeholders and experts, but how are we educating our people?

Our teachers in schools are yet to understand what media literacy is even as media have been included in the curriculum.

More importantly, though, it is upon the individuals to act responsibly. If you are up for it, you are in it. If you want to make a video of yourself engaging in private matters and want to make it accessible to the wider viewership, you should accept it. If you do not, then you must be more than just careful.

As a society that is evolving by the day, these are new challenges. Courts will do their part, but why must there be such cases at all where one must fight for one’s own image. This is where media literacy should walk in.

With amazing technological innovations this day, our moments private or otherwise could be captured at the real time and shared. That is the power of social media.

How responsible are we? What repercussions are we ready to face? That is media literacy in the nutshell.

Individual awareness is more important than some small pleasures and comforts of the moment. What we let out could have huge implications in the society.

Media literacy is what we need in our society today.