Social media addiction currently affects about half a million of the world’s population. A study by the Pew Research Center revealed that the average adult spends two hours a day on social media, and the average teenager spends up to nine hours a day on it. 

On April 10th, 2021, Pragyan '21 conducted the Crossfire panel discussion on the topic - “Social Media: A Modern Day Dilemma,” with an esteemed lineup of experts. Check out the discussion below!
 

Panellists

• Mr. Frank Rausan Pereira

Frank Rausan Pereira (FRP) is the Editor-in-Chief of Bharata First - a platform to inform, educate and empower the youth of our nation. He has worked as a Senior Anchor at Rajya Sabha Television, the then official broadcaster of the Upper House of Parliament of India. During his time there, he anchored and produced multiple prime-time shows. Viewers of RSTV, cherish him for hosting ‘The Big Picture’ a flagship show. He also hosted the country’s leading foreign affairs program ‘India’s World’. Before this, he was an integral part of other national channels and media houses. 

He takes a keen interest in international relations, politics, economy, sports, and culture.

• Dr. Santosh Kumar Chaturvedi

Dr. Santosh is one of the most experienced Psychiatrists in our country. He is a Consultant Psychiatrist and the Former Dean of Behavioural Sciences and a Senior Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Bangalore, India. 

He has been working in the fields of neuroscience and mental health for more than three decades. His major areas of research include psycho-oncology & palliative care, cultural psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, and postgraduate training & teaching methods. He has more than 600 publications in different International and National Journals with more than 300 citations/listings in PUBMED / MEDLINE.  He has been awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, Indian Council of Medical Research Award - Tilak Award, Indian Council of Medical Research Award - Tilak Award, 1992, and many others.

• Mr. Arnav Neel Ghosh

Arnav Ghosh is a prominent defender of the sharing economy and loves to triangulate content, trade, and innovation. Over the last twenty years, he has centered his focus around scaling new business verticals in arising Tech and correspondences new companies. This experience came from chipping away at some genuinely inventive worldwide undertakings like Orange Wednesdays, presently internationally known as Vodafone Tuesdays and the World's most comprehensive versatile steadfastness program in 2004, World's first AI-empowered AR visual search engine with Blippar, to name a few.

• Mr. John C Havens

John C Havens is the Director of Emerging Technologies and Strategic Development, IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA). He is also the Executive Director of the Council on Extended Intelligence and The IEEE Global Initiative on Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Ethics. 

Before this, he was an EVP of Social Media at PR Firm Porter Novelli and an expert entertainer for more than 15 years. He has composed for Mashable and The Guardian. He is the writer of the books Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity To Maximize Machines and Hacking Happiness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World.

• Dr. Shankar Prawesh

Shankar Prawesh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He has been a pioneer in the research related to Social Media, Agent-Based Simulation, and Fairness in Big Data. He has been invited to talks regarding “Social Media Analytics”, "Feedback Models in Top-N News Recommender Systems", "Topological Data Analysis" and many more.

He has completed his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. After a brief stint as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, Shankar joined the department of Industrial and Management Engineering at IIT Kanpur as an assistant professor.

• Mr. Prasid Banerjee (Moderator)

Prasid Banarjee ranks as one of the most respected tech journalists in India. While his field of choice is technology, he has covered myriad topics ranging from politics to food.

Eloquently voicing his opinion on various tech advances keeping in mind the short attention span of today’s youth in his podcast “Techcetra”, he has become a source of vital new information for the tech geeks in the country. Presently, he serves as an Assistant Editor for HT Mint and his columns are one of the most followed in the country. He's also very active on Twitter, frequently voicing his opinions and sharing tidbits of knowledge.