Social Media’s Propensity for Creating a Culture of Hatred
Khmer Times/T. Mohan
Sunday, 13 December 2015
Unknowingly too many of us, there is a culture of hatred being spawned by social media and we are falling prey because we have failed to grasp or realize the magnitude of the negative results of the influence social media has on our lives.
Relevant Magazine said that “On social media, we are in a world within a world. It’s easy to shut ourselves off from interaction because we believe our interaction online is enough. It’s easy to not see people all day, but rather see them online.
“Distance yourself from this tendency to isolate. Allow social media to push you in the world even further, not away from it.”
It is just as equal a danger to stay on social media than it is to leave. What this means is we are free to choose. We are free to pick which set of problems we want. We can decide how we want to improve our online experience.
There are many kinds of online social networking dangers. Individuals - both adults and teens - need to be fully aware of what type of information can be traced back to their person through simple conversations in a chat room.
For instance, telling a virtual stranger that you live in a certain town and attend a certain high school can lead that person straight to your classroom. But there are other types of dangers too.
People have been known to have their identity stolen, be stalked by sexual predators or have their photos taken from their online profiles and used in unauthorized ways. People also need to realize that just because you’ve chatted with someone online, doesn’t mean you really know that person.
In so far as social media and politics are concerned, politics is a game of perception and numbers. It doesn’t matter if you’re trailing an airplane banner or a displaying click-through banner ad on Facebook. Each has its advantages but neither will “move numbers”.
In the end, the candidate with an over-reliance on social media will fall short of reaching the numbers it takes to make a difference.
According to research done by Filpac Software Tools, Social media is one method for recruiting, motivating and empowering supporters. Few endorsements are more effective than a note from someone to his or her list of friends. Social media makes it easy to spread the word about events, schedules, current events and important talking points.
And any candidate can find a Facebook-savvy volunteer to take on the task of managing the Facebook posting -- and do a wonderful job of it!
Today, many politicians or candidates use social media to obtain public support during campaigns and election times. It has enormous power because the internet has increased dramatically in young generations, especially for potential voters.
They think social media has a real potential to disseminate messages quickly and across a wide area. Besides, they can reach the public easier than using traditional media, such as television, magazines, or newspapers.
A political message has significant power to gain sympathy from potential voters during election campaigns. Some politicians believe that the effectiveness of the message is an indicator to measure their success in elections.
A blogger from Adelaide, Asi Aja, penned that traditionally, politicians choose major media which is known by the wider community, such as television, newspaper and radio to transfer their political messages.
Nevertheless, traditions changed and with theemergence of the internet which has weakenedthe traditional print and electronic media. Asa result, political actors decide to use socialmedia to strengthen the effect of their message,which are delivered thorough other media.
On the other hand, there are issues about the weakness of social media. Some people argue that social media will be dangerous if political actors cannot utilize social media properly.
There is however, a weakness of spreading messages through social media. social can distract political campaigns and malign political perceptions and when the candidates make mistakes in social media, it is so difficult to counter those mistakes because the incorrect messages travel faster and all people have already read those messages. Moreover, according to Pew report, 56 percent of respondents face difficulties to distinguish the correct information from on the internet.
In Cambodia, “malicious” messages and feeds posted on the social media have served not to enlighten current affairs and issues but rather to exponentially heighten political tensions which even created the specter of civil disorder.
Examples of this are the posts by opposition party leader Sam Rainsy and opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour who carried the freedom of expression and speech too far with malicious posting on the social media network: Facebook.
The consequences, one is in self-imposed exile and the other in prison awaiting trial for abusing information and passing it off as authentic, knowingly or unknowingly.
What is worrying is that these unsubstantiated allegations may cause harm to the country’s reputation as a stable state with rule of law, one which offers political, social and security stability and economic growth.
Creating social media messages on sensitive issues may result in internal security, political and economic deterioration. Then everyone loses. The opposition for losing their leader to self-imposed exile, another who lost his coveted seat as Vice President of the Parliament, a senator in prison and so forth.
The ruling government also losses as Mr. Hun Sen reacted to the social media posts with gusto and annoyance and anger even because, one suspects, rather correctly, I would think, that the consequences of not taking action against those who posted fake messages on social media would have been far worse than the international calls for intervention and threats of aid stoppages.
The social media phenomenon has become so contagious that family members sitting a dining table do not communicate with each other as they are glued to their smartphones, chatting, checking Facebook messages, etc.
Office staff no longer make the effort to get up and walk five steps to clarify a point with a colleague, relying instead on chat platforms provided by social media.
Politicians too have adopted this as the in the worst case scenario, other than going to jail, is to remove the offending post and try pretending it never happened. Problem with this is by the time the offending post is taken down, a sizeable number would have read or seen it and formed perceptions which generally are far from the truth and this is where the famous maxim that truth is stranger than fiction comes to the fore.
Thus, in my family’s case, I ban the usage of phones, smart of otherwise, from the dining table until the dinner is over and not surprisingly, we get more quality chat and bonding time. Cannot say the same for politicians though.
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Social Media’s Propensity, T. Mohan