Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening, wherever you are.
If there are topics that I really hesitate or mostlikely avoid to talk about, one of them is definitely a mix of Politics and Social Media. But don't get it wrong, I do not mind talking about politics but most of the time I will avoid it.
The politic stuffs I like to talk about are the old school ones. I remember years ago, before we have this social media trend, people usually only talk about politics during the election. Candidates were popping out and they started to run their campaigns.
Talks about politic that time were not all about election. Sometime about family issue of certain political figures. Or some people who are highly regarded in certain politic party, got caught in bribery or other law and legal issue.
So what's the different about nowadays? People do social media and using it to run their political campaign, right?
The Double Side of Engagement
Politicians use social media because it is a powerful tool to make political engagements widely. It is not that so expensive anyway. They can communicate to masses directly without having to get filtered or what we often see in decentralization thing, "CENSORED".
This "free of speech" seems very likely run a long with democratization, making people sense some transparency and accessibility. People or potential voters feel that they have many opportunities for participation and engagement directly to these politicians and many of them unaware or maybe they get outsmarted or outwitted that they get sided with a certain politicians because they feel close to these high figure, they feel these great guys are they friend, one of them.
And frankly speaking, Politicians have been exploiting this things for years. They use social media to good cause run movements, making themselves look like a very kind people. Some running protests through social media, exposing frauds and injustices, making themselves look like having a high sense of justice and very accountable.
So people in long run get sided with them, believing these are the real deal, the real good people. These are ones of them for sure!
It Creates Polarization and Dichotomy
This is the problem and the main reason why I do not like mixing social media with politics. Imagine if you know or you believe a person is kind one, the righterous one, and he or she wants to lead for the sake of Goodness in the name of God. Then someone opposes him/her... That must be the Bad Guy!
That what happens nowadays, people got polarized. They see some bad guy, evil one trying to ruin a world, so they have to defend their hero. The sad things is that the other side is thinking the same. And to put it worse, both feels their are absolute right, with less or zero bias.
Nobody knows for real instantly whether something is right or wrong, and with all the knowledge, tools and the help of AI, real and fake information are hard to differ. So spreading misinformation and disinformation are very easy.
What do we see right now during our last election? I believe wherever we are, for example I am in Indonesia, and I believe people in USA must have experienced the same... instead of having endorsed with the campaign, it was more like a war of accusing others with fake news and conspiracy theories. Oh one more, TROLLS!
The sad thing was those things were more accepted than a debate on some new government programs that could bring a whole country into a better one. So It is not wrong if some people, including me, saying that Social Media nowadays has become a weapon to manipulate public opinion, create conflict, and influence election vote.
Moreover, the performative nature of social media has turned some political discourse into spectacle. Politicians chase virality instead of policy depth. Complex issues are reduced to sound bites, and performative outrage often overshadows substantive dialogue.
So What Should We Do?
Anyway It's my bad, I talk a lot for a while and I almost forget that some people might not familiar with the word of "Dichotomy". Dichotomy is dividing things into two opposite, same as polarization. Bottom line is how two things are completely different in opposition.
The dichotomy of social media in politics happens such as a battle of good vs evil. Smart vs Idiot, or potential and progress versus old fashioned. Even my wording is a bit weird here, I believe you know what I mean and you feel it too.
I am not an Anthropologist or Sociologist here, so I do not know whether this thing will be better or worsen as time progresses. But I hope people will improve themselves and try to embrace the essence of democracy again. Politics will continue to be shaped by the clicks, shares, and views. Whether that leads to unity or division, progress or chaos, depends on how wisely we choose to act and behave.
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. Currently I am running a small business with less than 10 people. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.
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