The Digital Divide: How Social Media Fuels Real-world tensions in Bangladesh?

Authors/ Publisher: Md Munim Ferdous

Abstract:

Bangladesh's digital landscape has undergone significant changes over the last decade. Sites like Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and TikTok have grown into useful tools for sharing information, talking to each other, and getting involved in politics. However, the growth of false information, hate speech, and extremist material, as well as differences in who can use digital technologies and how well they know how to use them, have made it harder for people to get along and stay safe. This research looks at how the digital gap affects people's use of social media and how these changes make problems worse in Bangladesh. The study uses a document-based, qualitative approach that looks at secondary sources like scholarly literature, government papers, and trustworthy news stories. It is based on the Digital Divide Theory, the Media System Dependency Theory, and the Social Amplification of Risk Framework. The results show that structural inequality, selective exposure, echo chambers, and artificial amplification make polarisation worse, allow online abuse, and sometimes start fights in real life. Low-effort online action, also known as "slacktivism," may raise knowledge without making big changes in society. This illustrates the importance of staying involved in politics. The study stresses how important it is to improve digital access, knowledge, filter out harmful material, and link online participation to real-world projects. By focusing on these areas, lawmakers and citizens can make digital places safer, friendlier, and more useful. This will strengthen and more reliably support Bangladesh's society as a whole.

Keywords: Digital divide; social media; misinformation; polarization; civic engagement; Bangladesh; real-world tensions