SOCIAL media is the about the power of one post on a Facebook wall or a tweet going viral and practically starting a virtual war. The Arab Springs revolt was attributed to social media. The revolution happened but the solutions defy the Arabs. This exemplifies the problem of social media. It can be a medium for crowd-sourcing but managing and leading the crowd along a desired goal is a completely different ball game. Once the online crowd has converged from the virtual world to the physical one there is no one to take charge. Often it is a case of no leader or of too many leaders emerging each with their own ideas of where to take the movement. Soon there appear cracks in the wall. The movement fizzles out and it’s back to business as usual. This was how the Anna Hazare movement was constructed by a few tech savvy people. Mobile messages raving and ranting against corruption and the UPA Government ignited the air waves and created a sensation. People who were frustrated with the system and the governance vacuum found a way to hit back. They gathered at the Ram Lila grounds for a few days but the movement could not sustain itself. Fighting corruption is a noble cause but it requires a different kind of mobilisation that goes beyond the mobile phone and social messaging for a sustained onslaught against corruption.
An inflammatory post on the contrary can incite communal conflict almost immediately. The exodus of students and professionals from Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai etc., last year following the Kokrajhar violence in Assam is a case in point. One video showing Muslims in Myanmar being persecuted by Buddhists was mischievously circulated in India and attributed to events in Kokrajhar. The backlash was instant. All north easterners with peculiar racial features became targets and returned to their homes here. It’s not a happy situation and should not have been repeated elsewhere. But Muzzaffarnagar happened recently and several lives were lost. The trend is for such flare-ups to spread beyond state and national boundaries and to create a fear psychosis. It is almost impossible to control this bandwidth which first came to us as a means of connecting people of similar political ideologies, social moorings or economic interests. Now the web space is like a demon unleashed and no one knows where it will take this modern world. However, the way forward is not for the state to let loose a reign of terror on this and use sedition as an excuse to book people who abuse social media. The right way is to sensitise people to the potential for destruction and violence that social network is capable of. An informed citizenry can be expected to self regulate its use or abuse. The 21st century has ushered in a range of complexities in our lives and changed our worldviews forever. We can only hope that those worldviews that develop over time are positive and constructive. Here the positive power of one is something we need to inculcate and propagate.