![]() In number of Instagram users, India is second only to the US and it ranks third among TikTok users. Is it any wonder that within no time we have had songs such as “Follow Me”, “Hit Me on Twitter”, “Follow U on Twitter” filling the ether waves? What’s more, with the present figure of 376.1 million social media users in India in 2020, we are expected to cross 448 million by 2023. No wonder, the use of social media by the BJP in the 2014 general elections yielded profuse dividends but have turned Twitter and Facebook into battlegrounds.Ĭan we really afford to ignore the impact of social media? Is there any aspect of our life that has remained untouched by its presence? We are watching housewives doing their daily chores (while their own work is being done by a domestic help or lying there unattended), and we are hooked on seeing slim, young Korean girls polishing off tonnes of food in mukbang videos (secretly envying them and wondering “how could they”), listening to various religious sermons spitting spite and fulfilling political agendas, and puffing up our chests and filling our vanity boxes with alt-truths and fake news from WhatsApp University, considering ourselves well-informed, nay erudite. ![]() Engaging direct participation from citizens, Beppe Grillo, its founder, used his blog set up in 2005 asking supporters to adopt social media to hold local meetings. The anti-establishment, pro-people, environmentalist Five Star Movement was the first political party to use social media to reach its voters. This happened especially after the success of the Five Star Movement in 2009. They have embarked on a journey to use different social media platforms to spread their various narratives amongst people. ![]() Could it give rise to a ‘digital democracy’ for the Facebook generation? On occasions, it has provided a perfect platform for collective grassroots action beyond mediums controlled by the Establishment.īut shrewd as they are, political leaders have usurped the power of social media. Blumler and Stephen Coleman have dreamt of. 1”, too, playing a role in organising an Arab Spring, a #BlackLivesMatter or a #MeToo, leading to “E-Democracy From Below” as Jay G. No doubt, social media can emerge as “Hero No. It is a space ruled by the ‘selfish giant(s)’ of the Oscar Wilde story who show off the bounties of their garden to viewers. Social media, with its own pros and cons, pluses and minuses, has become a ‘one more shot’ addiction. I still remember his remark made with a blank look on the face: “I lost my son to social media.” His son had been waging a lonely online battle to prove that being a Muslim does not place him in the category of being ‘anti-national’. The incident reminded me of the suicide of the teenage son of an acquaintance. ![]() Kimura took her life due to bullying on the Internet over her role in Netflix’s Terrace House. Last week, following the death of 22-year-old wrestler Hana Kimura, Japan declared online humiliation a punishable offence. It was the same during the Shaheen Bagh movement and the nationwide farmers’ stir.īut it is not always about politics. The UP police blamed the use of WhatsApp for the mobilising of the anti-Agnipath agitation. 1 ” in the eyes of governments all over the world especially when it comes to a question of “protest” against or “dissent” from them. Social media has recently emerged as “ Villain No.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |