Social Power & Social Media

Does social media have the power to effect social change?

That's a question that's been bugging me and it's part of the reason I started writing on a public platform instead of just for myself. Just to clarify this is not a post directly related to refugees and human rights, more an attempt to pull back the curtain and see if all this talk might achieve something.

There's a lot of talk, hype, tweeting and bleeping pulsing through the airwaves as we speak. Much of it is a global traffic in photos of what people ate for lunch, but some of it is serious. Do the issues filter through the morass though and when they reach a target, what impact does it have?

We're brought up in democratic societies believing that we have an important role to play in the future. One vote, one voice that allows us to have a say in how the nation, even the world is governed. Increasingly though I feel a lot of cynicism abounds about how true that ideal is. Many people I know feel disillusioned, even disenfranchised by the constant bickering of politicians and the wild antics that occur in lieu of governance.

Personally I feel that blogging, tweeting, hell even posting on facebook offers an opportunity to engage people in topics and perhaps effect some change. From experience I've seen an organisation in Australia called GetUp! run highly successful social media campaigns that have engaged large numbers of the populace to write, tweet, make noise and influence public thought. I'm not sure if this definitive proof but I see a start.

The best part is social media is not driven by any inbuilt bias. You may offer the opinion that more twitter users lean politically left, but that's not stopping the righties from signing up for accounts. We can see democracy in action if want it.

My suspicion is that the answer lies in the future and we are creating it right now. The impact of social media will derive from the positive ends we turn it to. That doesn't mean no more viral videos of some falling on their arse, but maybe we'll also see more viral public interest campaigns. How many social media users in a constituency would it take to offer a majority on a topic? Tweet your local member and see.

Thanks for engaging...