The preponderance of social media

This is apropos two back-to-back letters to the Editor of Mr Qamar Bashir carried by the newspaper in its issues of last Saturday and Sunday.

There is little or no doubt about the fact that the writer’s world view is strongly characterized by a great deal of global exposure and experience that certainly lend weight to his argument. Having said that, I must say that his style is heavy and textbookish. In other words, his are the facts of the past rather than of the present.

Through these two letters, he has presented a detailed comment on the unfortunate Bahawalnagar incident through which he has assailed, for example, the information department and ministry of provincial and federal government, respectively, and army’s media wing, ISPR, for their clumsy and flawed approach to this matter, thereby providing a highly ‘irresponsible’ social media an opportunity to cause warranted or unwarranted anxiety, confusion and distress among people. I am sure the writer is not properly aware of the power and preponderance of social media.

Moreover, I am not sure whether or not the learned writer is aware of the fact that from Facebook and Instagram to X platform (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, more than 4.7 billion people use social media, equal to roughly 60% of the world’s population. In early 2023, 94.8% of users accessed chat and messaging apps and websites, followed closely by social platforms, with 94.6% of users.

The question is whether or not the government social media has been sufficiently integrated as part of the government administrative tools to improve public service and promote public goals.

However, it has been observed that the current government information literature is limited to understanding government social media adoption and its purpose for political marketing. But there is no match between government social media and mainstream social media. Needless to say, the mainstream media has already lost its battle against social media.

That is why various governments, including Pakistan’s and India’s, often resort to depriving social media a level playing field by imposing curbs and fetters on it off and on. Little do these government, however, realize that in the age of social media, it is difficult to hide information from people.

The government’s and army’s media wings could not have done more than what they did in relation to the Bahawlnagar incident. Last but not least, it was during Gorbachev’s era that the then Soviet Union witnessed the birth of thousands of independent newspapers and periodicals.

Remember, it happened many years prior to the arrival of internet or social media in the world. Lifting curbs on press freedom enabled the Soviet people to make informed decisions about their future.

Hashim Reza (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024