Vanitha, Internet and the Mobile phone

16 comments ↓

#1 Mohan on 04.25.08 at 9:32 am

Woah!Athu kurachu kaduppam thanne. Paavam pillere jeevichu pookanum sammathikkilla

But then, this could very well be a sponsored post. Who is to gain by a lot less mobile phones? Or atleast, going by the angle they’ve taken, lesser mobile phones and computers for porn will mean that these hormone crazy people will have to depend upon stupid books like the infamous “M” publication you’ve mentioned. Hmmmm?

I agree with your observation - who the hell is Vanitha to take a call against the morality of teenagers? Who the hell are they to decide whether teenagers will misuse their phones?

And again, what the heck is wrong with a bit of porn? I’m not advocating it, but what is porn going to do the individual? Pervert him/her for ever? I don’t think so! In this country wherein there is no proper sex education, porn serves as the only repository for education in that particular niche. Though highly insufficient, it atleast shows the individuals what to do after marriage

What Vanitha also doesnt realise is that a Nokia 3310 cannot carry even photos, much less, porn!!!

#2 admin on 04.25.08 at 11:09 am

What they are trying to do is, gain the trust of the older and ignorant generation. They have succeeded in that, but not for long.

#3 Habeeb on 04.25.08 at 3:10 pm

Strongly supporting you Kenney…. When I was doing my Bsc, I used to spend most of my days in internet cafes. At that time broad band internet was not very familiar and the net speed was very slow (it’s only 5 years before). The internet cafe was ‘Infonet, Adoor’ (Specifying this name here for getting some publicity for that cafe, I appreciate the owners behavior to their customers). At that time Vanitha and some other so called family (?) magazines published such irresponsible articles. As a result (I think so), some of my friends and even few of the teachers suspected me. And I know many of my friends were afraid for signing up for a free email address because of these articles..

I strongly believe that these articles are funded by porn sites for promoting their business. Many of the guys understanding about the various porn sites through these vanitha type articles. Their hidden agenda is very clear, they want to deviate the indians from the good things and want to promote all the bad sides of western culture. YES, I strongly believe this.

-Habeeb-

#4 JAX on 04.25.08 at 5:32 pm

Well….its the same thing in Vanitha every time. They r just adding masala to the articles to get readership…Its just kerala culture. These kind of things sells.

One article I remember well is about college life in Bangalore. It was the time I joined the PG course here in Bangalore. One of my hostel mates parent called up after reading the article and was talking about discontinung the course and waste the fee of Rs 100k already paid. If the parents in a city in Kerala,can’t trust their son (NOT Daughter) studying for PG and has more trust in mags like these, I feels there is a problem with the older generations of kerala.

I wonder how many young people’s dream of getting a mobile got shattered by this article.

#5 Dinesh on 04.26.08 at 10:48 am

Good article !
But there is always two sides of a coin.
Teens should not get spoiled due to technology, that should be clear. As almost any technology can be misused.
Doubting is wrong, as a missing T can RUST the relationship. So parents may advice their children effectively before getting these kind of gadgets.
Magazine can soften such articles, by writing certain exclusive things in a different way.

#6 Kerala Tips » The nonsense that Vanitha (and other magazines) write on 04.27.08 at 9:50 am

[…] Kenney Jacob writes about the nonsense articles published by mainstream magazines in Kerala (specifically Vanitha from Malayala Manorama), Vanitha dont have the moral right to speak about the harm caused by phones or the internet, cos they are the part of a Malayala Manorama group, which owns another “M” publication which publishes all sorts of tingling stories. Just take a look at the drawings in those magazines and you will understand what I am saying. […]

#7 Padma on 04.27.08 at 7:26 pm

Hi,

I totally agree with Kenney. Yes, some of these magazines do spread such malicious articles (btw, Vanitha is a superhit magazine in Kannada also :)) and a bunch of parents are left confused as in “to mobile or not to mobile” type of situations.

Not long ago, when I first started visiting i-cafes, I used to be the only girl sitting in the cafe and all suspicious eyes looking at me. My parents were worried and my friends little too ashamed to be my friends. After that I started taking my brother with me protection to these cafes hehe.

But just blogging this shouldnt be the end of all. Can someone write to the magazine’s editorial on how internet/mobile etc have changed the lives of many and infact have become bread and butter for a large number of population.

Can someone take an initiative and write to the editor and add more names to that letter. Please add my name to when you write a letter.

#8 Malayala Manoramas Stinking Journalism | Disruptive Technologies and Education on 04.28.08 at 7:33 am

[…] http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/04/25/vanitha-internet-and-the-mobile-phone/ […]

#9 Issac Cheriyathu on 04.28.08 at 7:40 am

Vanitha has been feeding on the scare-mongering propagated by the ignorant.

No colleges should ban anyone from using cell phones. For heavens sake, 90% of the students are over 18yrs of age in most colleges. They have the right to do whatever they want. Sure, you can have restrictions like only silent mode allowed during classes etc. Anything more than that is an invasion of privacy and personal liberty.

Does anyone really think that banning cell-phones and not having a computer with internet at home is going to keep teenagers away from porn? For heavens sake, when I was a teenager, there was no internet(let us say, in today’s speeds and ubiquity) and I have only heard of mobile phones, and you bet me and about 75% of my peers had access to porn one way or another.

Keeping a computer at home would only help in one thing. Whatever he is accessing, he is doing it from a safe place. Rather than in some shady internet cafe with other side businesses.

This is not the first time Vanitha is doing this. They have been running stories like this much to the dismay of educated and the people in the know. Some of the tactics that Vanitha articles suggest to control your children are so naive that even a six year old could find ways to circumvent such restrictions.

What parents should do is to keep their children know about the perils and keep them street smart enough to deal with all these on their own. If they do not get that training, in a few years, they will be out in this cruel world on their own, where the Wolves and Grizzly bears roam. They will perish before you can type V-A-N-I-T-H-A!

#10 Vanitha and Mobile Phones | DesiPundit on 04.28.08 at 10:31 pm

[…] with the angle that it is harmful since it is mostly used by students to share and view porn. Kenney Jacob asks We all make mistakes. Its very true that the internet and mobile phones can be misused. We can […]

#11 Nikhil Narayanan on 04.29.08 at 9:48 am

So,instead of cell phones, all the kids in 7-9th standard would go back to “Doctor odu chodikkam” in Vanita, its sleazy question answer column?

Vanita has taken the threat from Cell phones seriously

#12 JMJ on 04.30.08 at 3:08 pm

Very Interesting…And good to see such a healthy discussion going on.

What Kenney has pointed out is very right - any technology or medium can be misused or abused - but that does not make the technology bad - the people who use it are the ones who are to blame.

And if the youth in India were so irresponsible - I think all of us here would be sitting and watching pron over the internet rather than discussing such a hot topic…

#13 | Balu | on 05.02.08 at 9:44 pm

I have a different take let us start a new magazine opposing vanitha titled po-nitha
our first story will be sari.. yes the same cloth that an Indian woman drapes.. the story will be on kids who were orphaned because their mothers committed suicide hanging from a sari! We will also demand mallu women give up wearing sari.. yeppadi? gandhigiri no?

#14 jstsum1 on 05.06.08 at 6:48 pm

i simply don’t get the point…
wht r u trying to say..
ban vanita…
y r u least bothered abt vanita publishing such an article…

”
A college student is expected to be the responsible head of a family after a few years. If we cant trust him/her with a mobile phone, how are we going to trust him/her with a family.

”

this few years are what it counts for tht fella to become head of a family….
its the reponsibility of the family to be sure he becomes eligible to be one rite person…
its their primary job to get him there..

all this internet/mobile/tv have there own side effects.. u can’t deny that..
if a family wants to keep it in check whom should v blame..

#15 Vimal George on 06.07.08 at 3:29 pm

This is FUD at its best. The old guard at the old media establishments spreading Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt about the new wave in communication/communities.
Kind of like M$oft’s campaign against Linux. meh.

It could be argued that some of it could be the deliberate moral policing that our parents’ (X-1)generation want to impose on their kids to protect them. BIG DEAL. Kids everywhere always find a way around restrictions. Kids of any given generation are almost always more savvy about tech than their parents’ generation. Its a LOSE-LOSE business proposition.

The other reasons could be a bunch of badly-paid writers who feel their livelihood writing poorly-disguised ’soft porn’, being threatened by the ‘new media’ ’s accessibility. I get a laugh out of the Rs4 publications from the house of Manorama and Mathrobhoomi that my mum is fond of. I never miss a chance to poke fun at her. God bless her soul. heh heh.

Nice writeup Kenny. I’m adding you to my feedreader.

#16 aries_curious on 06.14.08 at 10:21 am

Intresting Article…..Some articles in local magazines are really irritating though I read it …Bcos of such articles in the popular magazines, its impossible for a girl to talk using mobile phones in public places…. noone can sit in the internet for more than 2 hours….chatting has now turned out to be a biggest sin…!!!!

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