stuff | My Plugins

Away From Home – eBook

Hi guys!

My latest eBook, entitled “Away From Home: Two Stories”, features two original short stories that are about love, including filial love, death and closure. The main characters in both the stories find love away from home. The stories might tug at the reader’s heartstrings, but they are really intended to convey that ordinary persons can experience extraordinary feelings in the course of their respective journeys through the river of life and its numerous tributaries. The stories in the eBook are briefly described below.

An Ordinary Love Story:

Shankar, an Indian man, meets a Buddhist Chinese woman online and falls deeply in love with her. He travels all the way to Hong Kong to meet her in person after a virulent epidemic breaks out there. They meet each other. Eventually, the epidemic claims both of them.

Death of a Daughter:

Eklata, an attractive young lawyer, shifts base from Kolkata to Mumbai to work as an intellectual property consultant to a film production company. There, she meets a policeman who falls in love with her. Then, she is brutally murdered by a psychotic character. Her shell-shocked father meets her in a dream. After detailed investigations, aided by the victim’s policeman friend, the Mumbai police is finally successful in bringing the murderer to justice.

It is said that good love stories frequently end in tragedies. Do check out the eBook on amazon.in if you are interested.

Please spread the word if you like it! The link to the eBook is given below.

https://amzn.to/3ScqUEi

My Recent Paperback Of Short Stories

I recently published a paperback, entitled “Thereepooty And Other Stories” on Amazon. It is an anthology of seventeen short stories of different genres and moods. The different characters in these stories find themselves in different situations.

The different genres you will find in this book are science fiction, love and romance, horror, supernatural, humor, animal tales, etc. The stories are for readers of all ages.

To purchase the paperback, go to amazon.com or the amazon site relevant to your country. Choose “Books” in the search bar and then search for “thereepooty” over there. If all goes well, you will see a listing for my paperback in the search results.

Or, alternatively go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YR6BYGK.

Users from countries other than the US can replace “amazon.com” with the amazon site relevant to their own country such as “amazon.co.uk” for the United Kingdom in the above URL.

Hope you enjoy reading it.

Four Ways To Detect Browser Adblockers Using Javascript

Image credit: getadblock.com

Hi guys!

In this post, I will discuss four ways to detect adblockers in browsers using Javascript with jQuery framework. I shall stick to adblocking browser extensions only. This application of code enables you to notify the user of your site whether an adblocking extension is active in the user’s browser or not. The use cases are based on Google Chrome browser and AdBlock browser extension.

1. Offering a DIV as bait to the adblocker

First we create a wrapper DIV. Inside this div we create another DIV having no content and add some CSS classes to the inner DIV such as “adBanner”, “adsBanner”, etc.

We then browse to our webpage with the DIVS in it and with “AdBlock” adblocker extension installed and active in the browser. On opening the Developer tools in the browser, we will see that the inner DIV with the aforementioned CSS classes does not show at all. What happened? The adblocker blocked the element! Now, how do we detect this programmatically?

Simple. We detect the height of the inner DIV with the CSS classes on it. It will be returned as ‘0’ (zero). This can be done with only Javascript or even with jQuery. What action do we take on getting the inner DIV height as 0? We can notify the site visitor that their adblocker is on with say, a popup. We can also ask them politely to switch it off if we have painstakingly monetized our site with adverts, since all those adverts are blocked now.

When the visitor to our site switches off their adblocker and refreshes the page, the inner DIV will not be blocked. (Hopefully!) So then we can choose not to show the popup again.

First, include jQuery file in your test webpage. Now, let’s have a look at code:

The following code goes into the <body> tag of your webpage:

<style>
.adsBanner{
  background-color: transparent;
  height: 1px;
  width: 1px;
  }
</style>
<script>
jQuery(function(){
  if(jQuery('.wrapper').height() == 0)
  {
    alert("Ad Blocker is active");
  }
  else
  {
    alert("Ad Blocker is NOT active");
  }
});
</script>
<h2>Detect addons AdBlock Div Demo</h2>
<div class="wrapper">
  <div class="adBanner adsBanner"></div>
</div>

You will see an alert with a message saying “Ad Blocker is active” in your Chrome browser on browsing to your web page with AdBlock extension active.

Reference: https://html-online.com/articles/detect-adblock-javascript/

2. Offering a dummy ad script to the ad blocker

We create a javascript file called ads.js and keep in the same folder as our test web page. We then create a boolean variable that will be true. Immmediately after this line of code, we make a call to our dummy ad script ads.js. In the dummy script, we set this variable to false. So, when the ad blocker is active, the variable is true. If not, the variable is false.

This simple technique works for many ad blockers but not for some of them such as Privacy Badger. So, when the boolean variable is true, we can choose to show the notification and not show it when the variable is false.

Let’s have a look at the code:

First, the dummy ad script, ads.js:

//simple ad script
usingAdBlocker = false;

Then, the test web page. The following code goes in your <body> tag of your page. Be sure to include the jQuery file in your <head> tag of the page.

<script>var usingAdBlocker = true;</script>
<script src="ads.js"></script><!-- dummy ad script-->
<script>
if(usingAdBlocker == true)
{
  alert("Ad Blocker active");
}
else
{
  alert("Ad Blocker NOT active");
}
</script>
<h2>Detect addons AdBlock JS Demo</h2>

If your AdBlock extension is active, you will see an alert with the message “Ad Blocker active”

Reference: https://www.labnol.org/code/19818-detect-adblock-javascript

3. Sideloading a web accessible resource of an adblocking browser extension

The more advanced and more popular adblocker extensions do not follow the element blocking technique. They follow a more advanced method of blocking adverts. To deal with this, we side load a web asccessible resource that is part and parcel of the extension itself. How do we find such a resource?

For this example, I will use the Google Chrome browser and the “AdBlock” extension.

You can find the id of the extension by going to your extension manager in Chrome and clicking on the “Details” link corresponding to your adblocker. Here “gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom” refers to the extension “id” that is assigned to it.

Browse to the following URL in Chrome:

chrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/manifest.json

You will see a large JSON object with one key in the array that is “web_accessible_resources”. Choose any one of the URIs under this key. We will use the “adblock-onpage-icon.svg” URI for our example.

Browse the following URL:

chrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/adblock-onpage-icon.svg

Verify that this URL loads properly.

What will we have to do to use this URL? We will simply load it in a browser request, ajax or fetch, via Javascript/ jQuery and wait to receive the HTTP response. If we get a HTTP response code of 200, we can be sure that the plugin or extension is active, since it is possible to load it. We can then perform functions identical to point number 1 and 2 as above.

The following code goes in your <body> tag of your page. Be sure to include the jQuery file in your <head> tag of the page.

<h2>Detect addons AdBlock Side Load Demo</h2>
<script>
console.log(navigator);
//JSON Object for extension details 
var ExtensionObj = 
    {
      "extensionName": "AdBlock",
      "extensionID": "gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom",
      "resourceURL": "/adblock-onpage-icon.svg", //icon128.png
      "fileType": "image",
      "protocolPrefix": "chrome-extension://",
      "browser": "Chrome"
    };
    
//fetch extension resource	
function UrlExistsExt(protocolPrefix, extId, resourceURL, fileType, cb)
{
  
  var url = protocolPrefix+extId+resourceURL;
  
  $.ajax({
    url: url,
    dataType: fileType,
    type: 'GET',
    complete: function(xhr){
      
      console.log(xhr.status);
      
      if (typeof cb == 'function')
        cb.apply(this, [xhr.status]);
    }
  })
        
}
    
//Ghostery
var ShowPopupExt = false;

//mai function
function UnblockerExtFunc(ExtensionObj)
{
  var currExt = ExtensionObj;
  
  if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf(currExt.browser) != -1)
  {
  
    console.log("Browser matched.");
  
    UrlExistsExt(currExt.protocolPrefix, currExt.extensionID, currExt.resourceURL, currExt.fileType, function(status){
        
      if(status == 200)
      {
        ShowPopupExt = true;
        alert('Extension Detected'); //show dialog here
        
      }
      else{
         alert('Extension Not Found');
      }                                
    });
  }
}

UnblockerExtFunc(ExtensionObj);

$(document).ajaxStop(function(){
        
  if(ShowPopupExt)
  {
    alert("Show Popup"); //if dialog is to be displayed
  }

});
</script>

If your AdBlock extension is active, you will see an alert with the message “Extension Detected” and another with the message “Show Popup”.

Reference: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/manifest/web_accessible_resources/

4. Using the default adblocker behavior towards standard ad script URLs

There is a third class of adblockers that use even more advanced techniques of blocking ads. And, they provide no web accessible resources to latch on to. So what do we do? We utilize the default adblocking behavior of these extensions towards standard URLs of adblocking scripts.

The logic is as follows: We try to load a standard adblocker script URL using javascript or jQuery. If an adblocker is active, a request to such a script URL will be blocked. If it is not active, it will yield an HTTP response code of 200 or “OK”.

So if we get a HTTP status code of 200 from a request to any standard javacript ad script URL, we can be certain that an adblocker is not active and is not blocking the request.

We can then perform functions identical to point number 1, 2 and 3 as above.

The following code goes in your <body> tag of your page. Be sure to include the jQuery file in your <head> tag of the page.

<h2>Detect addons New URLs</h2>
<script> 

var FlaggedURL = 'https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js'; //standard ad script

jQuery(function($){
  function callMe(FlaggedURL)
  {
    $.ajax({
    url: FlaggedURL,
    type: 'GET',
    complete: function(xhr){
      
        console.log(xhr.status); //200 for OK
        
        if(xhr.status === 200)
        {
          alert("NO adblocker active");
          
        }
        else if(xhr.status === 0)
        {
          alert("Adblocker active");
        }
      }
    });
  }
  
  console.log('ready');
  
  callMe(FlaggedURL);
});
</script>

You will see an alert with a message saying “Adblocker active” in your Chrome browser on browsing to your web page with AdBlock extension active.

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33812704/run-an-ajax-request-on-a-url-blocked-for-detecting-adblocker-ghostery

Conclusion

So, in this article, I have given four ways of detecting adblockers in browsers using javascript/jQuery. You can easily apply these code snippets to make plugins, scripts, etc.

Did you like the article? Let me know in the comments below!

How to generate combinations from a set of characters

In this post, I shall share a code sample in Java that generates string combinations of characters from a given set of characters over a specified range of lengths of such string combinations. I hope I am not boring you all with this topic,since it’s my third such code sample to this effect. The other two samples can be found here and here.

Note that this is my fastest such code yet. It maxes out the cores of a multi-core CPU on execution. Also note that I have no systematic algorithm for this one! Does that sound weird?

There is no exponentiation involved in this sample as in the one here. We simply map elements in an integer array to characters in a character array and then convert that character array to a string when we want to do something with it.

We manipulate indices in the integer array by incrementation and decrementation, that’s it. The code uses the concurrency APIs of Java and is fully parallelized. It achieved about twenty two million iterations per second during my tests.

Finally, let me say further that I take no responsibility for what is done with this code.

package com.pratyush.stringgenerator2;

import java.util.concurrent.*;

class StringGenerator2 implements Runnable
{
    private static char[] dictionary = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j'};
  
    static Object locker;
  
    static  ExecutorService es;
  
    static int attempts = 0;
  
    private static String getStringFromIndices(int[] indices, char[] str)
    {
    
      for(int z = 0; z < str.length; z++)
      {
          str[z]=dictionary[indices[z]];
      }
    
      return new String(str);
    
    }
  
    private static long getMaxAttempts(int startLen, int stopLen)
    {
        long myMaxAttempts = 0;
    
        for(int c = startLen; c <= stopLen; c++)
        {
            myMaxAttempts += Math.pow(dictionary.length, c); 
        }
    
        return myMaxAttempts;
    }

    public void run()
    {
    
       long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
    
       generate(6, 8); 
    
       long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
    
       double secs = (end - start)/1000;
    
       System.out.println("time = "+secs);
    
       System.out.println("words = "+attempts);
    
       System.out.println("max words = "+ getMaxAttempts(6,8));
    
       double speed = attempts / secs;
    
       System.out.println("speed = "+speed);
    
       synchronized(locker)
       {
        
           es.shutdownNow();
        
           locker.notify();
       }
    
   }
  
   public static void generate(int startLen, int stopLen)
   {
     int LEN = dictionary.length;
    
     attempts = 0;
    
     String strCombo = "";
    
     for(int currLen = startLen; currLen<= stopLen; currLen++)
     {
         char[] str = new char[currLen];
      
         int[] indexes = new int[currLen];
      
         for(int f = 0; f < indexes.length; f++) 
         {
             indexes[f] = 0;
         }
      
         for(int j = 0; j < LEN; j++ )
         {
             indexes[0] = j;
        
             if(currLen == 1)
             {
          
                 strCombo = getStringFromIndices(indexes, str);
          
                 /***generate string here and do whatever you like***/
          
                 attempts++;
             }
             else
             {
                 while(indexes[1]<LEN)
                 {
                     int i = 1;
            
                     for(i = 1; i < currLen; i++)
                     {
                        if(indexes[i] == LEN)
                        {
                            break;
                        }
              
                        if(i == currLen - 1)
                        {
                
                            strCombo = getStringFromIndices(indexes, str);
                                
                            /***generate string here and do whatever you like***/
                                
                             indexes[i]++;
                             attempts++;
                         }
                     }
            
            
                    for(int k = 2;k<currLen;k++)
                    {
                        if(indexes[k] == LEN)
                        {
                            indexes[k-1]++;
                                
                            for(int l = k; l<currLen; l++)
                            {
                                indexes[l] = 0;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
          
                for(int m = 1; m < currLen; m++)
                {
                    indexes[m] = 0;
                }
             }
          }
       }
    
    }
  
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
    
      es = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
    
      locker = new Object();
    
      es.execute(new StringGenerator2());
    
      try{
         synchronized(locker)
         {
            locker.wait();
         }
      }
      catch(InterruptedException ie)
      {
   ie.printStackTrace();
      }
    
   }	
}

Code execution after compilation is shown below:

Sample Code Generating String Combinations of Characters

In my post here, I shared an algorithm to generate all possible combinations of a given set of characters for a specified range of lengths. In this post, I shall share a code sample written in Java that implements the algorithm shared before. It does not use any goto keyword and hence does not create sphagetti code.

The code uses the concurrency API of Java and is fully parallelized. It maxes out the CPU cores of a multi-core CPU and achieves a few million iterations per second. The code sample uses a custom utility function ‘power’ for calculating powers of integers. It is made static for more execution speed.
The code is commented in places to help readers understand it.

As with the algorithm, I take no responsibility for what is done with this code.

package stringgenerator;

import java.util.concurrent.*;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.*;

public class StringGenerator implements Runnable
{
  private static char[] dict = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l'};  //allowed characters
  
  private static ExecutorService ex;
  
  private static AtomicLong attempts = new AtomicLong(0); //count the number of combinations generated
  
  private static Object locker = new Object();
  
  private static long maxAttempts = 0; //total possible combinations of characters of specified lengths
  
  private static int maxLen = 0;
  
  private static long getMaxAttempts(int radix, int maxLen)
  {
    maxAttempts = (power(radix, maxLen) - 1)*radix /(radix-1);
    
    return maxAttempts;
  }
  
  //utility function to calculate powers of integers
  private static long power(int base, int exp)
  {
    if(exp < 0)
    {
      return 1/power(base, -exp);
    }
    else if(exp == 0)
    {
      return 1;
    }
    else{
      long pow = 1;
      for(int p = 1; p <= exp; p++)
      {
        pow*=base;
      }
      
      return pow;
    }
  }
  
  //the main work horse of this program, breaking all possible numbers into combinations
  private static void resolveRadix(int len, long num)
  {
    long[] retVal = new long[len];
    
    int pow = 0;
    int i = -1;

    int radix = len;
    
    for(i = 0; power(radix ,i ) <= num; i++ );
    
    for(int j = 0; j < len - i; j++)
    {
      retVal[j] = 0;
    }
    
    for(int k = len - i; k < len; k++)
    {
      long t = power(radix, i - 1);
      if(i > 1)
      {
      
        retVal[k] = (long)((num - (num % t)) / t);
      
      }
      else
      {
        retVal[k] = (num % radix);
      }
      num -= (retVal[k] * t);
      
      i--;
    }
    
    char[] combo = new char[len];
    
    for(int j = 0; j < len; j++)
    {
      combo[j] = dict[(int)retVal[j]];
    }
    
    String str = new String(combo);
    
    final long attemptsVal = attempts.incrementAndGet();
    
    attempts.set(attemptsVal);
  }
  
  private void generate()
  {
    for(int length = 1; length <= maxLen; length++)
    {
      int radix = dict.length;
      
      long max = (long)power(radix, length);

      for(int i=0;i<max;i++)
      {
        resolveRadix(radix, i);
      }
    }
    
  }
  
  public void run()
  {
    generate();
    
    synchronized(locker)
    {
      locker.notify();
    }
      
    ex.shutdownNow();
    
  }
  
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    
    ex = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
    
    maxLen = 6;
    
    long atts = getMaxAttempts(dict.length, maxLen);
    
    StringGenerator threads = new StringGenerator();
    
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis();  //execution start time
    
    ex.execute(threads); //execute code parallelly
    
    try{
        
      synchronized(locker)
      {
        locker.wait();
      }
    }
    catch(InterruptedException ie)
    {
      ie.printStackTrace();
    }
    
    long attemptsVal = attempts.get(); //final total number of attempts
    
    long end = System.currentTimeMillis(); //execution end time
    
    double speed = (double)((1000 * attemptsVal)/(end - start)); //rate of generating combos
    
    double seconds = (double)(end - start) / 1000;
    
    System.out.println("per sec = "+speed);
    
    System.out.println("sec = "+seconds);
    
    System.out.println("words = "+attemptsVal);
    
    System.out.println("max words = "+atts);
    
  }
}

Execution after compilation is shown below:

Algorithm Generating String Combinations of Characters

In this post, I shall reveal another algorithm to generate all possible combinations of a given set of characters,of any predetermined range of lengths. For example, if we take a,b,c as possible characters in our combinations, and 1 to 3 as the range of lengths, then we have the following output:

a
b
c
aa
ab
ac
ba
bb
bc
ca
cb
cc
aaa
aab
aac
aba
abb
abc
....
ccc

This algorithm merely generates the combinations as strings of characters. It is upto the user of this algorithm to decide what to do with the generated string. I take no responsibility for what a user might actually do with this algorithm.

It is a non-recursive algorithm and is highly efficient in terms of usage of memory. Being non-recursive, it avoids the pitfall of call stack overflow, even with a large input space.

As with my other algorithm similar to this one here, one needs to implement parallelized code to max out CPUs and achieve a very high number of iterations per second.

The only limitation is that the combinations generated have a large amount of repetition of characters, which is exacerbated when the specified range of lengths is high.

The algorithm is as follows:

1. take length of string from minLen to maxLen, 
   array of characters being considered as dictionary
2. take current length of string as len
3. take radix as length of character dictionary
4. take max as radix to the power of len
5. from num = 0 to num = max - 1, resolve radix len, num
6. resolve radix as follows
   a. take retVal as array
   b. find p = highest power of radix <= num
   c. from j = 0 to len - p - 1, retVal[j] = 0
   d. from k = len - p to len - 1,
      i. t = radix to the power p - 1
      ii. if p > 1, retVal[k] = (num - (num % t)) / t;
          else retVal[k] = (num % radix)
      iii. num -= (retVal[k] * t)
      iv. p--
   e. build string from retVal using 
      str = empty string
      foreach(retVal as r)
          concat (dictionary[r]) with str
   f. do something with str
7. if len = maxLen 
      quit
   else
      increment len by 1 and goto step 2

The cornerstone of this algorithm is the resolve radix subroutine which does the main work in it. It works similar to conversion of decimal numbers to binary numbers. However, the difference is that in each of the bits, instead of just 0 and 1, we can put numbers ranging from 0 to length of the set of possible characters minus one.

In our case, the character set is a,b,c. So the numbers fitting in the bits are 0,1 and 2,with 0 mapping to ‘a’, 1 mapping to ‘b’ and 2 mapping to ‘c’. The total size generated is equal to the current length. So in our example above, there will be three main iterations, with the total bit size of the ‘number’ ranging from 1 to 3.

So the bit combinations range from

0
1
2
00
01
02
10
11
12
20
21
22
000
001
002
….
222

Using our mapping rules above, we get a from 0, b from 1, c from 2, aa from 00, ab from 01, ac from 02, etc.

Let this be a Valentine’s Day gift for everyone!

Can mankind bet its future on long distance space travel?

Long distance space travel is the stuff of science fiction. Cosmonauts strap themselves into cryogenic hyper-sleep pods while androids with artificial intelligence pilot the ship to exoplanets several light years away. The cosmonauts remain in suspended animation until they reach a predetermined point on their route. The exoplanets themselves have been found to be habitable for humans, of course, and the space ships travel at speeds comparable to the speed of light. Then, one fine day, mankind blasts off into space to embrace its future as a multi-planetary species, leaving a barren and desolate Earth behind. But, can mankind really bet its future on this kind of interplanetary or intergalactic travel?

In reality, modest beginnings have been made with both private enterprises and national governments working towards setting up bases on the moon as well as nearby planets like Mars. Elon Musk’s Space X is one of the notable private enterprises planning to colonize Mars (1). Governments planning to set up bases on the moon are those of USA, Russia and China, as well as governments of some European nations (2). These activities are supposed to be a stepping stone to venturing deeper into outer space.

The feasibility of long distance or intergalactic space travel hinges on a number of factors:

Finding habitable exoplanets

Habitable exoplanets are rocky planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, at a distance suitable to remain at an atmosphere that makes it possible for chemicals like liquid water to exist. The region at this distance around the star is called the habitable zone. (3)

Such chemicals are essential to sustain human life. So far, thousands of exoplanets have been discovered by NASA. The size of the exoplanet can also be measured based on how much it dims the brightness of the star when passing or transiting in front of it from our point of view. (3)

It is now known that exoplanets are fairly common in the universe. However, they must be at a suitable distance from Earth for mankind’s ability to reach in order to colonize it. The reason is that even if the exoplanet is a hundred light years away, then assuming that our spaceship travels near the speed of light, it will still take a hundred years to get there. Most cosmonauts will not live beyond that time span! As for children to be born in space, that is a huge leap into the unknown, to say the least.

Invention of travel at nearly the speed of light – wormholes, space warps, etc

The nearest earth-like exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, is 4.25 light years away. A conventional space craft will take hundreds of thousands of years to get there, at a conservative estimate! Four and a quarter years is a far more feasible time frame, which means that our ship needs to travel at a speed really close to that of light.

According to Marc Millis, a former NASA propulsion scientist, it would take a billion billion Joules of energy, a little bit less than all the energy consumed by the entire world in one year, to get a spacecraft carrying 500 people from Earth to Alpha Centauri, the planetary system closest to our solar system, in 75 years! Obviously, we need a very powerful source of energy, something yielding a huge amount of energy per unit weight. The actual technology required is at least 200 years away according to Dr. Marc. (4)

What about speeds of light or greater? According to Albert Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity, an object travelling at the speed of light or more will have infinite mass because of the equation E = mc² , where E is the energy of the object, m is the mass and c is the speed of light. This equation talks about the energy-mass equivalence whereby an object will have an increase in mass as a result of its motion. Energy and mass are essentially the same entity and can be converted to one another.

One might say that Einstein said nothing about tachyons which are already travelling at speeds greater than or equal to that of light. But common sense tells us that human beings and their spacecraft are not tachyons!

There is no feasible technology to enable travel at the speed of light, let alone speeds more than that of light. In the light of recent developments, however, a few exotic ideas are being considered. These are wormholes and space warps. (5) (6). The idea of photons propelling rockets has also been bandied about.

The proof of principle for faster-than-light (FTL) space warp propulsion was published decades ago in a 1994 paper by physicist Miguel Alcubierre. Conventional advanced propulsion technologies are limited to speeds below the speed of light. Even speeds slightly less than that of light will take centuries of research to attain. Using an FTL space warp will drastically reduce the time and distances of interstellar flight, according to astrophysicist Eric Davis, a leader in FTL.

In current FTL theories, it’s not the ship but space that moves! We know that space is flexible. Space has been expanding steadily since the Big Bang. If we distort the space around the ship instead of accelerating the ship itself, a warp drive would not break Einstein’s special relativity rules. The ship itself doesn’t need to go faster than light with respect to the space immediately around it, thus remaining within the ambit of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

In a warp drive, space in front of the vessel is contracted while space behind it is expanded, propelling it forward and eventually bringing the vessel to its destination. In wormholes, the ship (or perhaps an exterior mechanism) would create a tunnel through space-time, with a targeted entrance and exit. The ship would enter the wormhole at sub-light speeds and reappear in a different location many light-years away.

According to Davis, a wormhole entrance is a sphere that contains the mirror image of a whole other universe or remote region within our universe, which is incredibly shrunken and distorted.

How can we create these space-time distortions that will allow vessels to travel faster than light? Several research scientists are currently studying the feasibility of a warp drive (and EMdrive and a number of other modes of faster than light travel).

It’s believed, and certain preliminary experiments seem to confirm, that producing predetermined amounts of “negative energy” would achieve the desired effect. Negative energy has been produced in a lab via the “Casimir effect”. This phenomenon is based on the idea that vacuum, contrary to its portrayal in classical physics, isn’t empty. According to quantum theory, a region of vacuum is actually full of electromagnetic fluctuations. Distorting these fluctuations can create negative energy.

According to Caltech physicist Sean Carroll “In short, it requires negative energy densities, which can’t be strictly disproven but are probably unrealistic; the total amount of energy is likely to be equivalent to the mass-energy of an astrophysical body; and the gravitational fields produced would likely rip any ship to shreds. My personal estimate of the likelihood we will ever be able to build a ‘warp drive’ is much less than 1%. And the chances it will happen in the next hundred years I would put at less than 0.01%.”

Engineers have yet to come up with a technique to create a traversable wormhole with a targeted entrance and exit or distort space as envisioned in the concept of a warp drive.

Moreover, most scientists think that such forms of space travel simply aren’t viable, thanks to the fundamental physics of our universe. Dr. Alcubierre himself listed a number of concerns, starting with the vast amounts of exotic matter that would be needed. The warp drive is impossible on this ground alone, in his opinion. “At speeds higher than the speed of light, the front of the warp bubble cannot be reached by any signal from within the ship,” he emphasized. “This does not just mean we can’t turn it off; it is much worse. It means we can’t even turn it on in the first place.”

Obviously, warping space requires a lot of mass and energy, and ensuring that the space where you are located isn’t warped is very difficult to say the least. Indeed, the proposition was mostly just an experiment when it was first proposed – not something Alcubierre thought was actually viable technology.

Therefore, the concepts of warp drives and wormholes remain in the realm of fiction.

Invention of hyper-sleep

Hyper sleep or cryosleep is a state of suspended animation in which human metabolism slows down to a negligibly low rate. When a human being is brought out of this state, all bodily functions begin to work like normal. What is the current state of research in this field?

In Prometheus, the prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien, long space voyages are accomplished by putting the travelers to sleep in pods for two years, only waking them when they reach their destination. The aging process itself has been interrupted to allow humans to undertake multiple long trips to the stars. When Alien was released, hyper-sleep was pure science fiction, but work in a laboratory in Seattle, Washington seems to have brought hyper-sleep a step closer to reality. (7).

Mark Roth of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has been publishing papers documenting his research on, in his words, keeping living creatures alive for increasingly long periods of time since 2001. First, he took fifty zebra-fish embryos and deprived them of oxygen, slowing down their movement and development for twenty-four hours. Then the embryos were exposed to a normal environment and raised as sexually mature adults. More complex creatures will die if deprived of oxygen. Roth undertook a journey of discovery to find out whether it is possible to de-animate mammals and eventually people.

However, Mark Roth’s research was not about de-animating people to help them undertake long voyages to the stars. Mark Roth wanted to use suspended animation to help people out when in trauma, so they could then be transported to the best place for treatment without suffering the problems of delay they would otherwise experience. Roth started looking for a way to reduce the human metabolic rate, against received wisdom. He searched for a chemical that would facilitate the survival of people and species through extreme cold and lack of resources without lasting ill-effects. After many failures, he came across hydrogen sulfide, a gas which is used in chemical warfare despite the fact that the human body produces it, the highest concentration being located in the human brain. In chemical accidents, it’s known that if you breathe too much of it you collapse to the ground, you appear dead, but then if you’re brought out into normal air you can be re-animated without harm, if done quickly enough. Trials on yeast, nematode worms, and non-hibernating mice were successful. However, the metabolic rate reducing effects of hydrogen sulfide inhalation seem to be inversely related to body size.

For example, the rate of metabolic depression in rats was several times lower than that in mice.
Also, the same study on swine and sheep could not confirm significant reduction in metabolic rate, oxygen uptake, etc (8). Finally, in human volunteers, inhalation of hydrogen sulfide during exercise decreased oxygen uptake. However, this was referred to as a toxic effect on aerobic capacity rather than a regulatory effect on metabolism. It was doubtful whether the “suspended animation” observed in mice could be transferred to humans in a clinical setting.

Another alternative is cryogenic sleep. Bodies are preserved through the process of vitrification. An antifreeze agent is added, which will replace water in the cells. The tissue is then cooled to -220 Fahrenheit, but instead of crystallizing into ice, the chemicals clump together and become solid, like glass. The new glass form prevents the cells from bursting and, theoretically, holds them in stasis forever. But the problem is that scientists are yet to come up with a way to thaw or rewarm human tissue back to life. So far, only 50 ml of tissue has been brought back to normal conditions. (9).

In some cases, it’s preferable to just cool a system down to slow down all the functions of metabolism and essentially slow down aging. In other words, it’s not the long distance voyages but the journey to nearby planet Mars that is within reach through stasis similar to what some animal species on earth do already. These species include bears and ground squirrels.

Bottom-line is that research in suspended animation and cryogenic sleep have yet to make enough progress to make the possibility of sleeping through space voyages of extended duration a reality.

Increasing the human lifespan

One of the ways for human beings to survive long duration space trips is to somehow lengthen the human lifespan. Currently, the maximum age anyone has lived up to is about 119 years (10). Assuming that a person can be put into service as a crew member at the age of 18 and can serve till 90 years, we can easily calculate that a crew member can put in 72 years of service. Also, it is not sufficient for a crew member to serve on board the ship. A base has to be set up on reaching the destination planet. An optimum number of crew members must be maintained in various departments. Different individuals will have aptitude in different areas of expertise, not necessarily the required area of expertise. Therefore, it might be necessary to find a way to lengthen the lifespan of human beings.

Many researchers have been working to answer the question: “Can we live longer but stay younger?” Research on aging has been carried out mostly on nematode worms (11), (12) and mice, which are nowhere nearly as complex as humans. Doubling of lifespans of mice is not that impressive.

Many researchers are now inclined to think the problem is “epigenetic”. In other words, there is a problem of reading the genetic code in cells, like problems in reading a compact disc over time. Harvard molecular biologist George Church observed that it is possible to make aging cells repair themselves. David Sinclair, a Harvard geneticist, is a champion of the “hormesis” approach or inducing metabolic stress by intense short-duration exercise or intermittent fasting.

Anti-aging research seems to be proceeding along two fronts: dietary supplements and genetic engineering. The supplements are supposed to activate the right proteins in our cells. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, involves adding or otherwise manipulating genes in a population of animals. In mice, this can be done by reorganizing the genome in the embryo and using it to breed a genetically altered variant. Genetically altered mice that are known to create more of a single protein, sirtuin 6, have been known to live longer. However, this is not accepted as an indication of increased longevity. It is merely equalizing the lifespans of male and female mice.
Researchers are now working on dogs having an average lifespan of a decade or more.

There are problems with this work, even though the lifespans of the test subjects are higher. There are surprisingly few biomarkers of increased longevity. How does one know if the test subjects live longer except by waiting for decades to see when they die? Ideally, we need something like a chemical signature in a blood test that correlates with an individual’s lifespan.

Scientists are optimistic about genetic engineering since they have already managed to make aging embryonic stem cells become young again by reprogramming them. This has doubled the lifespan of mice in the lab. We have yet to see such results in experiments on dogs. Human beings are a long shot.

Feasibility of space travel for extended periods of time, effect on human gene activity.

Scientsists have believed that space travel for extended periods of time can harm the human body and possibly even damage human DNA. The latest report by NASA seems to have broken down the old age thought that long hours of space travel is hazardous to the human body. (13) New results from the NASA “Twins Study” have shown that there are no major warning signs and little reason to think that humans cannot survive a two-and-a-half-year round-trip journey to Mars. Christopher Mason, Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine said “the body has extraordinary plasticity and adaptation to being in zero gravity, at least for a year”.

But, what is this much hyped “Twins Study” conducted by NASA? As part of the Twins Study, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent nearly a year in space while his identical twin, Mark remained as a control subject on Earth. By means of this experiment, NASA wanted to look at the effects of space travel on the human body.

The study was a first of its kind effort to compare the molecular profiles of identical twins, one in outer space and the other on Earth. It seems that spending nearly a year in space, triggered Scott’s immune system response, so that more activity was observed at the cellular level in Scott’s body as compared to Mark’s body. It also changed the activity of some of Scott’s genes.

Craig Kundrot, Director of NASA’s space life and physical sciences division, emphasized that so far, the space agency’s research found nothing that would make a Mars mission impossible.

However, a Mars mission would expose astronauts to higher levels of radiation than what is permissible under the current guidelines. Radiation alone is sufficient to damage a human being’s body at the cellular level. Also, the duration parameter of the Twins Study was one year, less than half of what it would take for a Mars mission. So, once again, current research should be regarded with cautious optimism.

Physiological effects of long period travel in micro-gravity

The pull of gravity tells the human body to maintain muscle tone and bone density. According to NASA studies, micro gravity implies that this signal is no longer there. (14) Therefore, muscles begin to atrophy and so do bones. Muscles atrophy as quickly as 5% a week and bones at the rate of about 1% a month. Muscles used to support the body against gravity, such as those in the calves and spine, can lose as much as 20 % of their mass. Blood is affected too. On Earth, blood pools in the feet, resulting in a pressure of about 200 mm of Hg (mercury). In the absence of gravity, the gradient of blood pressure is absent. Blood pressure equalizes throughout the body. Astronauts look odd in these conditions. Their faces, filled with fluid, puff up and their legs become thin. Higher blood pressure in the head gives an alarm signal which reduces blood volume. The heart atrophies because there is less blood to pump.

This atrophication of the human body doesn’t matter as long as the astronauts are in the spaceship. But, what happens when they land on an exoplanet? They need to be able to help themselves, because no one will be around to help them. So, what is the solution? Exercise is the key. Devices that simulate resistance and gravity on the human body need to be created and used.
One promising device is called the Lower Body Negative Pressure device (LBNP) which simulates gravity by applying negative pressure on the lower body. It uses the suction of an ordinary vacuum cleaner. It reduces much of the loss of cardiovascular function of muscle and some indices of bone loss as well. It also restores the blood pressure gradient and increases blood pressure to the legs. Therefore, we have the means to mitigate the harmful effects of microgravity resulting from travel in outer space to some extent.

Psychological effects of long period travel and isolation

Viewing the Earth from space can be spectacular and can even be a spiritual experience. On the other hand, space travel for extended periods of time, are bound to have psychological implications because of the change in physical and social environment. It is important to understand the psychological and sociological effects of spaceflight before any long distance expeditions to the stars can be undertaken. (15), (16), (17) This is because the success of any space mission depends on the astronauts functioning together as a cohesive team. Any friction or conflict can jeopardize the entire mission because the success of the mission depends on cooperation among the team members. Crew members are likely to be chosen carefully, screening them for psychiatric conditions beforehand and assessing their personalities.

However, it has been found that the human brain works differently in micro gravity, perhaps because of the alteration of blood supply to the brain, thus affecting the efficiency with which oxygen is supplied to the brain. Working for prolonged periods in outer space is like being isolated and confined to a tin can, away from friends and family, away from the familiar daily sensations like the ground under your feet and the smell of fresh grass. Prolonged isolation and confinement are stressors which are persistent and pose a significant mental health hazard.

There is also the problem of cultural and language diversity in space missions conducted jointly by different nations. Differing work culture and management styles are also a factor.

There have been incidents in the past in space missions where space crew members reported hallucinations, both visual and olfactory sensations. When the brains of astronauts are affected, so is their decision-making and other cognitive abilities, which will be dangerous to the integrity of long distance missions where there is no real-time contact with mission control on the ground.

Needs and supplies for extended spaceflight.

During extended periods of space travel, spaceships will have food and water supplies.
However, there must be a mechanism of replenishing reserves of both food and water. This can only be possible through agriculture because of the impracticality of resupplying interplanetary missions, both in terms of cost and weight of the shipments. A farm in space will help create a sustainable environment by recycling waste water, faeces and by generating oxygen which will continuously purify the air. (18) A space farm can turn a spaceship into an artificial ecosystem having both a hydrological cycle and nutrient recycling.

However there are technical challenges in this kind of agriculture. Plants grown onboard a spaceship experience higher radiation, lower gravity and lower pressure. Directional light compensates for the microgravity somewhat. Higher radiation for one, damages the DNA of plants. It could also reduce their nutritive value.

Food can lose its nutritive value significantly even when it is stored for a year or so. Long missions can severely deplete the nutritive value of food stored for that long. Once the crew lands on their exoplanet, agriculture will be a labor-intensive activity for the first colonists.

The crew will be a fixed number to begin with. However, death and senescence will deplete man power. The number of crew members can only be maintained through periodic replenishment through the birth of children. Obviously, we need to figure out a way of producing children both onboard their ship and on the exoplanet the crew intends to colonize. We need physically and mentally healthy individuals.

Conclusion

Although some research has been done, it is still too early to conclude that we will be able to colonize exoplanets. Many of the areas of research have yet to provide promising results when subjects were changed from lab animals to humans. Some people might argue that it is still too early to take a call; that we have a lot of time. This optimism can accelerate the ecological decline of our world due to reckless behavior of people, thus reducing the time we have in hand. Reaching the conclusion that we can colonize exoplanets, might make people even more irresponsible.

Some areas of research may hit unsurmountable roadblocks because of the laws of the natural world, the universe itself. We can’t count on our scientists to solve every research problem in the world. Hence, we should treat research findings with cautious optimism and make sure that we are able to live on Earth as long as humanly possible, with space colonization as a backup plan.

References:

1. https://www.businessinsider.in/This-speculative-SpaceX-timeline-reveals-roughly-when-where-and-how-Elon-Musk-plans-to-colonize-Mars/2022-2023-Land-the-first-Big-Falcon-Spaceship-on-Mars/slideshow/66206786.cms

2. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/21/china-steps-up-bid-to-win-the-lunar-space-race

3. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-exoplanets/en/

4. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-01/interstellar-travel-wont-be-possible-least-200-years-according-new-calculations

5. https://www.space.com/21721-warp-drives-wormholes-ftl.html

6. https://dailygalaxy.com/2018/09/nasa-faster-than-speed-of-light-space-travel-will-warp-bubbles-enable-dreams-of-interstellar-voyages/

7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9319883/Prometheus-Alien-and-the-science-of-hypersleep.html

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4060059/

9. https://www.inverse.com/article/31267-cryogenic-sleep-hibernation-space-travel

10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_oldest_people

11. https://www.fightaging.org/

12. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-fountain-youth-pill-youre-mouse.html

13. https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/long-term-space-flight-travel-has-no-effect-on-human-health-nasa-1458178-2019-02-17

14. https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast02aug_1

15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Psychological_and_sociological_effects_of_spaceflight

16. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/conquering-the-challenge-of-isolation-in-space-nasa-s-human-research-program-director

17. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/05/hallucinations-isolation-astronauts-mental-health-space-missions

18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_farming

Sample Code for Algorithm to Create Combinations of Characters

In my post here, I described an algorithm to create all possible combinations from a set of characters. However, it allows repetitions of characters in the generated combinations. e.g aas, aaa and so on.
In this post, I will demonstrate an implementation of this algorithm in PHP, without any parallelization of any kind. I don’t know if it’s even possible to parallelize code in PHP.

You can run this code on LAMPP, WAMP, MAMP or XAMPP if you like. Successive trials of code execution may be faster than previous ones. Maybe, you all won’t like this code since it uses the “goto” keyword which is believed to lead to the creation of spaghetti code. However, this was the easiest way to implement the algo for me.

<?php 

$dictionary = array('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e');

$startLen = 1;
$stopLen = 4;

$currLen = 1;

//function to create string combination from array of indices
function getStringFromChars($indices)
{
  global $dictionary;
  $str='';

  for($j = 0; $j < count($indices); $j++)
  {
    $str.=$dictionary[$indices[$j]];
  }
  
  return $str;
}

//check condition to stop generating combos
function timeToStop($indices)
{
  
  global $dictionary;
  
  $stop = false;
  
  for($j = 0; $j < count($indices); $j++)
  {
    if($indices[$j] < count($dictionary) - 1)
    {
      return $stop;
    }
  }

  $stop = true;
  
  return $stop;
}

//main function
function generate($startLen, $stopLen)
{
  global $dictionary;
  $attempts = 0;
  
  for($currLen = $startLen; $currLen <= $stopLen; $currLen++)
  {
    step3:
    $chars = array();
    
    $indices = array();
    
    //init the arrays
    for($i = 0; $i < $currLen; $i++ )
    {
      $indices[$i] = 0;
      
      $chars[$i] = $dictionary[$indices[$i]];
    }
    
    step4:
    $working_index = $currLen - 1;
    
    step5:
    $str = getStringFromChars($indices);
    
    step6:
    echo $str;
    echo "<br />";
    $attempts++;
    
    if(timeToStop($indices))
    {
      if($currLen < $stopLen)
      {
        
        continue;
      }
      else
      {
        break;
      }
    }
    
    if($indices[$working_index] < count($dictionary) - 1)
    {
      $indices[$working_index]++;
      goto step5;
    }
    else
    {	
      if($currLen > 1)
      {

      
        while($indices[$working_index] == count($dictionary) - 1)
          $working_index--;
          
        if($working_index == -1)
        {
          if($currLen < $stopLen)
          {
            
            continue;
          }
          else
            break;
        }
        else
        {				
          $indices[$working_index]++;
          //set all indices to the right of working_index to 0
          
          for($k = $working_index + 1; $k < count($indices); $k++)
          {
            $indices[$k] = 0;
          }
          
          goto step4;
        }	
      }
      else
      {
      
        if($currLen < $stopLen)
        {
          
          continue;
        }
        else
          break;
      }
    }
    
  }

  return $attempts;
}

$start = microtime(true);

$atts = generate($startLen, $stopLen);

$end = microtime(true);

$time_taken = $end - $start;

$rate = $atts / $time_taken;

echo "Time(seconds): ".$time_taken;
echo "<br />";

echo "Attempts: ".$atts;
echo "<br />";

echo "Rate: ".$rate." iterations per second";

Algorithm to create all combinations from a set of characters

In this post, I shall reveal an algorithm that generates all possible combinations of a given set of characters of a specified range of lengths. The algorithm is as follows:

1.  take dict as a character array of possible characters in your string combinations
take currLen as integer, startLen as integer, stopLen as integer, chars as character array,  indices as integer array

2.  initialize currLen = startLen

3.  Set length of chars array to currLen, length of indices array to currLen

4.  set working_index  = currLen - 1

5.  get string from chars array as follows

i.  set i'th element of chars array to indices[i]'th element of dict

ii. Do the operation in the previous step (i) from i = 0 to i = currLen - 1

iii. concatenate the elements of chars array to generate a string combination of characters

6.  print string in step 5

7.  if all elements of indices equal length of dict - 1

         if currLen < stopLen

              increment currLen by 1

              go to step 3

         else

              quit

8.  if element of indices at position = working_index < length of dict - 1

        increment element of indices at position = working_index by 1

        go to Step 5

    else

        if currLen > 1

             decrement working_index by 1 till element of

             indices at position = working_index equals length of dict - 1

             if working_index equals -1

                 if currLen < stopLen

                     increment currLen by 1

                     go to Step 3

                 else

                     quit

              else

                  increment element of indices at position = working_index by 1

                  set all elements of indices to the right of position = working_index to 0

                  go to Step 4

        else

            if currLen < stopLen

               increment currLen by 1

               go to Step 3

            else

               quit

At first glance, this algorithm may look like a brute force algorithm, but I seriously doubt that it can be used to do naughty things like cracking passwords. Of course, to unleash the full power of this algorithm, one needs to parallelize the code in his implementation of this algorithm. That way we can max out the cpu cores and enjoy a very large number of iterations per second.

It may, however, be used to create a reverse lookup database of one way cryptographic hash functions. But, with the use of salts being common nowadays, such a database of all possible plaintexts and their hashes may not be useful after all.

The best part about this algorithm is that it is non-recursive and so avoids an inordinately large number of function calls and a potential call stack overflow. This is true especially when the dictionary of characters is very large.

So, all in all, this algorithm may be used as a fun academic exercise. Or, perhaps one of you guys may come up with a practical use for this algorithm.

Social Media: Benefits and Dangers

A fairly large proportion of the global population owns computers. The internet has brought different people together, cutting across boundaries of age, race, gender, profession, social and political preferences. People can now access diverse content whether for work or entertainment, from any computing device capable of connecting to the internet. They can send email, visit sites and forums where they can post their opinions. They can chat online and even see the other person’s face.

However there has been a new revolution, particularly in the past two decades, that has brought people even closer. This is the emergence of social media.

What is meant by Social Media?

The term social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, micro-blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media (Margaret Rouse https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media).

Some prominent examples of social networks are:

Facebook: Probably the most famous and popular social media network having hundreds of millions of active users any day. It allows registered users of the age of 13 and above to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

WhatsApp: It started out as a mobile social networking app and a web application version was also released a few years ago. Like Facebook, it has hundreds of millions of users. Facebook acquired WhatsApp a few years ago (TOI Tech
https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Facebook-buys-WhatsApp-CEO-Mark-Zuckerberg-explains-why/articleshow/30714548.cms).

Twitter: It is a free micro-blogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets, limited in their number of characters. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and keep track of other users’ tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.

Google Plus: It was Google’s social networking project, designed to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case with other social networking services. This website no longer allows new users to sign up and those with consumer accounts (ending in gmail.com) to use its services. It was shut down on April 2, 2019 (Google “Frequently asked questions about the Google+ shutdown” https://support.google.com/plus/answer/9217723?hl=en).

Wikipedia: The world’s largest content management system dedicated to recording and spreading knowledge. It is a free, open content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; however, registration is not required to edit articles.

LinkedIn: A social network for professionals which recently snapped up an educational services provider named Lynda.com (Maya Kosoff https://www.businessinsider.in/LinkedIn-just-bought-online-learning-company-Lynda-for-1-5-billion/articleshow/46865136.cms).

Reddit: It is a social news website and forum where stories are socially curated and promoted by site members. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, known as “subreddits.” Each subreddit has a specific topic such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as, “redditors,” submit content which is then voted upon by other members. The goal is to send well-regarded stories to the top of the site’s main thread page (Margaret Rouse https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media).

Pinterest: It is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online, like pinning interesting images on a board. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source of the image. For example, clicking on a picture of a pair of shoes might redirect users to a shoe purchasing site (Margaret Rouse https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media).

Instagram: Instagram is a photo- and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc.

Blogs: Blogs are regularly updated websites or web pages, typically run by an individual or small group, which are written in an informal or conversational style. For example, https://idratherbewriting.com/ is a blog on technical communication. Blogs allow communication of ideas and facts in a personal way and create a brand for the person or people behind the blog.

Social media have a tremendous impact on society and the user or membership base of such sites and services run into billions. For example, hundreds of millions of photos and videos are shared daily on Facebook alone! The infrastructure that goes behind serving such a large user base with high performance services is mind-boggling. The user base is only going to grow according to future projections (Statista 2019 https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/) (See Figure 1 for user statistics).

Social media have recently been adversely impacted by government censorship, especially in countries with conservative regimes like China (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_China). However, the means to circumvent such obstacles to social media access do exist. They are of two kinds: (1) accessing international sites through virtual private networks (VPNs) and (2) home-grown social media services like Weibo in China.

Figure 1. Number of social network users worldwide. Source: “Number of global social media users 2010-2021” https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

How are Social Media changing Socialization and society?

Social media are changing society and socialization radically. Society is becoming more open and connected. Users tend to share even the most intimate details of their daily life with the online community, bordering on exhibitionism. There is a tendency to befriend someone whom you don’t know all that well. It is as easy as a mutual exchange of messages of consent. It works even if you don’t know that person in the offline world.

Social media give you the ability to create a fake persona. Other people in contact with you will base their opinions and emotional responses on this fake persona. On the other hand, if you give genuine information about yourself, it is easier to spy on you.

You can keep track of contacts all across the world, even when you relocate from one city or country to another. You can update your new location on your profile. You can also keep your contacts posted about the happenings in your life, wherever you are.

How do Social Media Help?

You can stay in touch with contacts whenever you are online and wherever you may be located. You can share photos and keep track of the changing look of the other person or people. One can capture precious moments on video and share them with their online friends. You can chat with contacts online whenever they are available.

You can form an online community with like-minded people. You can share your interests, hobbies and anything else with other people, reaching across geographical and social boundaries.

Social media are especially useful for staying in touch with friends, family and colleagues. You might even find your former friends, former partners and former colleagues online (See Figure 2 for benefits of social media to seniors).

In testing times like the COVID-19 pandemic, when we cannot step outside our homes and be part of a social gathering because of lockdowns, social media help us remain in touch even when we are under quarantine.

Social media lend a social aspect to entertainment like multiplayer and role-playing games. You can compete with friends or help them in difficult situations and boast of your high scores! Businesses can benefit from users playing games developed by them by introducing in-game advertising and purchases.

Social media help us keep in touch with what is trending and popular. It puts your finger on the pulse of the people. Businesses can benefit from this. They can do targeted advertising, i.e. advertising based on user preferences in things ranging from food to fashion, entertainment and even consumer electronics.

Figure 2. Benefits of social media to individuals, especially seniors.
Source: “Benefits of social media for seniors”
https://ihps.com/benefits-social-media-seniors/

Knowledge-sharing communities like Quora and Stack Overflow are of tremendous help to people from all fields. Quora is a general-purpose question and answer site. Stack Overflow is for information technology and computer programming specifically. People can post their queries regarding any topic of choice and get answers from community members.

Social media are also helping political activists in gathering more signatories for their causes and petitions. They can post a petition on a social media site/service and tell users about it. These users can then choose to indicate that they support the petition.

Social media help businesses to communicate more with prospective clients. They drive internet traffic to the business’s website, creating more awareness about their products and services. It also helps in revenue growth through more sales. (See Figure 3 for benefits for business.)

Figure 3. Businesses can benefit from social media marketing in numerous ways.
Source: “7 Side Effects of Social Media”
https://visual.ly/community/infographic/social-media/7-side-effects-social-media/

How do Social Media hurt?

Just as social media can help, they can also hurt. Criminals and malicious individuals can take advantage of their new contacts and commit crimes against them. These crimes include rape and murder, apart from cheating and fraud. The trouble starts when the would-be victims decide to meet their so-called online friends in the real world, not suspecting their mala fide intentions (Press Association https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/dec/27/social-media-crime-facebook-twitter). (See Figure 4 for Crimes against women in India.)

Criminal gangs spread illegal content using social media including stolen goods and services. For example, they may put up stolen credit card numbers and verification numbers for visitors to misuse them.

Figure 4. Crimes are committed against women in India.
Source: “7 Cyber Crimes on Social Media Against Women [India]” https://www.slideshare.net/soravjain/7-cyber-crimes-on-social-media-against-women-india/

Social media are also used for spreading misinformation or controversial and provocative content. This can lead to communal violence because of the inflammatory nature of the content. Fake news can even influence the outcome of elections, subverting a democracy’s functioning. For example, the presidential elections in USA in 2016 were rumored to be influenced by fake news about certain candidates on sites like Facebook (Danielle Kurtzleben https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323233/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election).

No matter how secure creators of social networks try to make their social networking sites, hackers can always devise means to obtain personal information of users and misuse it. They can also target celebrities.

Opportunistic and unethical individuals can create fake profiles in the names of individuals or national ministries or governments. They can then get contact information of people who think they are chatting with the real person(s) (Matthew Herper https://www.forbes.com/2009/04/24/facebook-privacy-herper-business-media-facebook.html#6f99db037288).

Confidential personal data can be sold by unprincipled social networks for financial gains. It may be sold to advertisers. Your profile may be free to create on such sites but you are the product! (Julia Carrie Wong https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/28/facebook-apple-tim-cook-zuckerberg-business-model)

Students lose out on valuable study time spending too much time on sites like Facebook. Employees of corporate organizations damage office productivity by accessing social media sites from office networks which have nothing to do with their work. Creating network access policies against such sites may become futile in certain cases where employees can use their own devices and internet dongle, known as BYOD which stands for “Bring Your Own Device”.

Social communication is becoming addictive because some services are designed for addiction using principles of psychology. Some sites are even known to cause the reward centers of the brain to be affected during usage (Haley Cummings http://www.collegiatetimes.com/lifestyles/the-effect-of-social-media-on-the-brain/article_f27b5a1e-b999-11e7-bfc2-77d77ccdf0b1.html).

A business’s page or posts can be down-voted deliberately by users with malicious intent. On the other hand, giving businesses control over which reviews to display will give them the power to filter out negative reviews completely.

Employers can base their hiring decisions on the candidates’ social media profiles. So, a person who likes to take a walk on the wild side may not get hired at all, despite having the necessary skill-sets! (Saige Driver https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html)

There are far-reaching psychological and biological effects of social media use. Cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking have a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. Even without the presence of a persecutor, you may feel anxious, sleepless and depressed. Night-time use of social media disrupts your sleep cycle and your body’s natural bio-rhythms. Constant bombardment of near-perfect images of celebrities and actors or models, especially on Facebook, Instagram, etc, can give you a negative body-image. You may begin to think you are too fat or thin or ugly, even if you are not! (Anya Zhukova https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/)

Figure 5. Social media use can cause anxiety, sleeplessness and depression.
Source: “7 Negative Effects of Social Media on People and Users” https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/

Conclusion

Social media bring people together but can also hurt the interests of those people. However, the interaction on social media cannot be a substitute for face-to-face meetings with a close group of friends. Social media can help you stay in touch but can also spread malicious misinformation. It can also put your private/confidential data up for grabs in dubious online communities.

Businesses can tap the consumer market by reaching out to users of social media. They can target users in their advertisements because they know their preferences. This is a potential privacy concern. Social media are like a double-edged sword and must be used cautiously.

You should strike a balance between your online as well as offline lives and apply the same prudence to your online life that you would apply to your life in the offline world.

References

1. Margaret Rouse “Social media” https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media

2. TOI Tech “Facebook buys WhatsApp: CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains why”
https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Facebook-buys-WhatsApp-CEO-Mark-Zuckerberg-explains-why/articleshow/30714548.cms

3. Google “Frequently asked questions about the Google+ shutdown” https://support.google.com/plus/answer/9217723?hl=en

4. Maya Kosoff “LinkedIn just bought online learning company Lynda for $1.5 billion” https://www.businessinsider.in/LinkedIn-just-bought-online-learning-company-Lynda-for-1-5-billion/articleshow/46865136.cms

5. Statista 2019 “Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions)” https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

6. Wikipedia “Internet censorship in China” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_China

7. Press Association “Social media-related crime reports up 780% in four years” https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/dec/27/social-media-crime-facebook-twitter

8. Danielle Kurtzleben “Did Fake News On Facebook Help Elect Trump? Here’s What We Know” https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323233/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election

9. Matthew Herper “I Was Impersonated On Facebook” https://www.forbes.com/2009/04/24/facebook-privacy-herper-business-media-facebook.html#6f99db037288

10. Julia Carrie Wong “Apple’s Tim Cook rebukes Zuckerberg over Facebook’s business model” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/28/facebook-apple-tim-cook-zuckerberg-business-model

11. Haley Cummings “The effect of social media on the brain” http://www.collegiatetimes.com/lifestyles/the-effect-of-social-media-on-the-brain/article_f27b5a1e-b999-11e7-bfc2-77d77ccdf0b1.html

12. Saige Driver “Keep It Clean: Social Media Screenings Gain in Popularity” https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html

13. Anya Zhukova “7 Negative Effects of Social Media on People and Users” https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/