Q4 · UPPSC PCS Mains 2019 · Essay · 50 marks · ~700 words in the hall · 2 min read

← Q3 Q5 →

Role of social media in public awareness.

Topic: Science, environment, economy and agriculture. Syllabus: Section B — Science, Environment and Technology; Economic sphere; Agriculture, Industry and Trade. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2019 and Science, environment, economy and agriculture.

Essay map

Opening scene

Anecdote

A flood SOS and a caste rumour travel the same pipe in a Purvanchal district. Public awareness is the SOS. The rumour is a counterfeit public. The topic is the role — write both faces. A phone can carry an SOS and a riot. Public awareness is the first; the rumour mill is the tax.

Keep this in every paragraph

One stand

  • Awareness: health, a vote, a scheme. Role: speed, a bypass of a gatekeeper, a targeting. Keep a 2019 election-adjacent coolness without a party.

Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall

Heading map

What the line is asking

  • Public awareness as a civic good.
  • Social media as a tool with a bias to emotion.

Plus / minus

  • A vaccination myth vs a real camp time.
  • Polarisation as a business.

The counter

The old newspaper also lied. The task is literacy, a notice-and-action, not a nostalgia for a single editor.

SOS and brake

  • Disaster, a vaccine line, a missing child — the public good of a feed.
  • Deepfake, a forward, a paid pile-on — the harm.
  • Platform duty, a PIB fact-check, a school that teaches a second source.
  • Awareness without a library is only a mood.

Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump

Value addition

  • Art. 19 Speech — and a harm that is real.
  • IT Act / intermediaries A duty on the pipe.
  • ECI / MCC Awareness vs a paid lie — peg once.
  • IFCN / PIB A fact-check as swimming up.
  • Disaster SMS The good face of speed.

Last 8–10 lines in the exam

Last paragraph

Social media is a public square that never sleeps. It can teach a flood warning, a blood group, a court order. It can also teach a lie at the speed of a thumb. Public awareness is the good the topic names; the rumour is the cost the topic hides. Use the SOS: a verified handle, a district that posts before the panic. Brake the rumour: a second source, a law against a mob, a platform that is not only a spectator. Do not write a ban-fantasy or a Silicon hymn. Close on a feed that saved a queue, and a forward you would still refuse. That is awareness as a civic skill.

Quick related

Students also ask

  • Digital Economy: possibilities and challenges.

    Next question in the 2019 paper (Q5). View answer →

  • Full 700-word essay?

    No. Map only. In the hall, grow each heading; write in English or Hindi, not both.

  • Tone?

    Fork. One SOS, one rumour. Not a boomer rant.

PYQ trend

When UPSC asked this

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