Social media is the world’s most popular media all over the world. In fact, this has become the need of the day because the younger generation is really fond of social media sources; for example, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and many more. The current era is signifying marvelous inclinations of network development to share activities and views. This is resulting into the emergence of shared styles rather than isolation at all levels.
The generation of the modern age is more allied than the past, due to admiration of these web based mediums. Since this is adding to the awareness of youth, this is also contributing towards the political responsiveness; which is not fixed in a particular area of the world but has become the part of overall global culture. Presently Pakistan is deficient of the research studies on the subject; nevertheless, other countries have conducted studies and found that youth of the day are more aware than the last eras through social media.
I don’t say that student should be practically participating in the politics by joining a party, going into the processions of helping the election campaigns, leaving their education behind. But in my view, they should at least seek awareness about our political systems, regarding which they have to formulate the opinion, during the electoral process. One should be aware about the obligations of our systems, the past performances of different parties and their good or bad decisions in the past. Since youth are the main segment in the future decision making in the countries; they should be more focused to know what is best for them.
In my view, the perceptions of most of the population are dependent on media. We get to know what media lets us know. We feel like media makes us feel and the leader who is the best in the media books is also the best in the people’s view. That is why. Whoever has the higher influence over the media, captures people’s mind wins the elections and finds victory by grabbing the chair. This is the game of influences; but as far as the social media is concerns, it is free to share opinions. That is why people should be more associated with the social media rather than print and electronic media.
The responsibility cannot be left only at the shoulders of the political representatives. We cannot expect a party member to share the story of his leader’s corruption. Nor we can depend on the opposite party representative, who may create false opinions due to rivalry. This is the responsibility of the common public who have experienced something on their own and have seen the real faces of these leaders who shod really nice faces in public. Anyone who is aware, should share these things through social media so that the entire public is aware of the facts.
Participation in the political awareness has no harm, since it does not consume extra time. Everyone among the younger generation is involved in different kind of interactions on the social media. This is all about setting your focus and thinking what percentage of your time will be allocated to political awareness, out of the already spent time on it. But at the same time, it is also important to control your tendencies from leaning to a certain extreme.
An aware nation is an asset for the development of a country; we can take the best decisions if we are well aware of the facts and figures about the past performances; hence we can utilize social media in a practical way.
Tehseen Nizami