(Podcast advisory note: Please visit: http://www.aasra.info/helpline.html for more information on mental health/distressed and suicide prevention helplines. The Indian number for suicide prevention helpline is: 91-9820466726)

In this another intriguing episode of Blank Blank Radio, the hosts come back with an interesting conversation on understanding how social media becomes gendered. From understanding how young people in India today engage with and relate to events and information circulated on social media to understanding how they ‘treat’ different networking platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to express their thoughts and emotions like anger, this episode seeks to understand what it means to open oneself to millions and millions of “other” followers or social media users. By claiming our spaces on social media do we expose ourselves and our vulnerabilities to the world? How do we deal with the overwhelming presence of social media in our lives? How do we talk about the impact that the usage of social media has on our mental health in different ways? In doing this we do not claim to be mental health experts in any way. However, as users we endeavour to critically engage with how social media has come to redefine our lives today. We talk about our own personal experiences as women using social media and how it has shaped the way we make friendships and relationships online. 

References:

1.     For understanding the death of Sam Stafford  in Assam while protesting the CAA: https://www.eastmojo.com/news/2020/01/24/assam-caa-stir-sam-stafford-died-due-to-double-bullet-injuries/

2.     For locker room controversy: https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/may/05/boys-locker-room-case-15-year-old-held-in-south-delhi-10-others-identified-2139576.html

3.     For understanding more about the unfortunate demise Sushant Singh Rajput and the subsequent politicisation of his death: 

https://thewire.in/politics/bjp-sushant-singh-rajput-bihar-elections

4.     To understand Rhea Chakravarty and her being tried by media outlets and social media outlets:

https://thewire.in/women/rhea-chakraborty-sushant-singh-rajput-trial-by-media

5.     To understand honour killings and the violent dynamics associated with inter-religious and inter-caste marriages in India:

https://theprint.in/india/begged-bystanders-touched-feet-no-one-helped-says-wife-of-hyderabad-honour-killing-victim/945743/?amp

6.     To understand the unfolding of the Mizoram- Assam border dispute in 2021:

https://raiot.in/letter-to-a-fascist-from-a-contrarian/

7.     To understand how women experience trolling on social media:

https://thewire.in/women/online-trolling-of-indian-women-is-only-an-extension-of-the-everyday-harassment-they-face

8.     To understand how different individuals belonging to different age groups interpreted the Ukrainian- Russia conflict:

Welcome to BlankBlank Radio. Join us, as we Siami and Shivangi introduce ourselves and talk about life and experiences here in Aizawl and Guwahati in India's faraway Northeast India for our first episode.

References:

Adese, J., Todd, Z., & Stevenson, S. (2017). MEDIATING MÉTIS IDENTITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH JENNIFER ADESE AND ZOE TODD. MediaTropes eJournal, VII(1), 1-25.

Ahanthem, C. (2021, November). There is no such thing as a book from the ‘North East’. The literary establishment is blind to this. Retrieved 4, April 2022, from Scroll: https://scroll.in/article/1011440/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-book-from-the-north-east-the-literary-establishment-is-blind-to-this

Chakravartty, P. (2022, February 11). Of Academic Hierarchies and Harassment. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from Medium: https://medium.com/@pauchakravartty/academic-hierarchies-and-harassment-f39c66b72b08

Christensen, J., Cox, C., & Szabo-Jones, L. (2018). Activating the heart : Storytelling, knowledge sharing, and relationship (Indigenous studies series). Waterloo, Ontario.

Hausig, K. K. (2014). Asymmetric Federalism and the Question of Democratic Justice in Northeast India. India Review, 87-111. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2014.904151

Shimray, U. A. (2004, October). Socio-Political Unrest in the Region Called North-East India. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(42).

Trouillot, M. R. (2021). Trouillot Remixed The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader. (Y. Bonilla, G. Beckett, & M. L. Fernando, Eds.) Durham: Duke University Press.

Trouillot, M. (2015). Silencing the past: Power and the production of history (ACLS Humanities E-Book (Series)). Boston: Beacon Press.

Zama, M. C. (Ed.). (2017). Contemporary Short Stories from Mizoram. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.

For Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris's podcast titled Still Processing podcast title: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2sb8wamiy3rNndZSJedMj1?si=RHCVhZESNuZ3Z14sGsqw&utm_source=copy-link