TO
say that social media are all about community building is rather
simplistic. Sure, it’s true, at the most basic level, Facebook, Twitter
or any other of the so many interactive, Web-based communications we
have right now congregate people online in ways that were not possible
before.
In the
not-so-distant past, you had to live or work together to build a
community. With social media you can make friends, share ideas and a lot
more with people even thousands of miles away.
It does make the world a
lot smaller. But the more you spend time online, you realize that it is
a very big, very noisy world out there, too. It can be a pretty
intimidating community.
There
are so many people and so much information. You can make friends just
as easily as you can make enemies. You can find something just as easily
as you can get lost in another. You can build trust one moment and
destroy it the next. You can support your government or help topple it.
Humans
are tool-making animals, said Benjamin Franklin. We are always building
things, not only to adapt to our environment but also to change that
very environment we live in.
The current and always-evolving
technologies of social media are just an extension of our tool-making
gifts.
As always,
how we use the tools we make is up to us. In our anniversary issue we
decided to focus on how we Filipinos use the tools of social media to
improve the way we communicate, the way we live, the way we interact.
The
Philippines has the highest social-networking usage in the Asia-Pacific
region, according to comScore, a leading online-audience measurement
service. Our country reportedly has 25.9 million Facebook users to date.
In June it had 4.1 million Twitter users. There are an estimated 29.7
million Filipino Internet users, representing 29.2 percent of the
population. This is bound to grow significantly as more Filipinos start
using smartphones for surfing the Internet and social networking.
Filipinos
are becoming more adept at using social media not just to connect with
old friends and make new ones but also to demand and effect changes from
the government and society.
The
banner story of our anniversary issue tells us how the Aquino
administration is harnessing the power of social media in pursuing its
“social contract” with the Filipino people.
The
President has an official Facebook page and a web site,
president.gov.ph. There is also the Official Gazette (gov.ph), the
official online portal to the Philippine government.
Presidential
Spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte
are active in social-networking sites, especially Twitter, where they
interact directly with citizens.
The
Department of Health has the Web- and mobile-based SHINE (Secured
Health Information Network and Exchange) system that responds to the
data-management needs of doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health
professionals in the Philippines. The Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) both have Twitter
accounts that provide real-time updates to the public.
But it is not only the government that is engaging social media.
In
the private sector, more companies and civil-society organizations are
also looking to create more personal connections with Filipinos through
social media.
Companies
are using Facebook updates, tweets and text messages to share
information and dialog we with their customers, when before they had to
call press conferences or issue news releases for the purpose.
Long
before the government got into it, many companies were already hiring
specialists who could incorporate the use of social media in their
marketing plans, not only to sell products and increase revenue, but
also to foster long-term trust for their brands.
Nowadays,
Facebook, Twitter and blogs are used as broadcast platforms for
protests against tollway taxes, fare increases, high oil prices and
other causes just as much as rallies, marches and other street protests
and demonstrations.
Social
media are being used to bring more democracy into our democracy, so to
speak. They are providing new ways for more people to collaborate and
discuss sociopolitical issues openly and without fear of retribution.
Whether it is to combat climate change or facilitate a rebellion, social
media’s ability to quickly build a positive consensus and inspire
action is unprecedented.
We
in the news business have also seen how social media are changing news
gathering and provision in very practical ways. Citizens no longer need
newspapers to run their letters or contributed articles to get their
points across to a wider public. They can publish them online.
Indeed,
more and more Filipinos are becoming citizen journalists. Those who
used to go on self-righteous rants as they drink their beers in bars or
street corners are actually doing something better by blogging or
posting something online to urge collective action on a particular
advocacy.
Traditional
journalists are also interacting with their sources through social
media. In some organizations, Twitter is performing a function that is
not unlike what traditional wire services do.
People
no longer need to wait for tomorrow’s newspaper or even the evening
news to be updated with what’s happening. They can get their news in
real time through the social- media networks of news agencies.
Of
course, the irony in all this is that social media can become a vehicle
for destructive impulses, as well. Facebook pages and Twitter have been
used to slander, spread lies and spew venom in the same way they’ve
been used for love, friendship and useful, positive interaction.
Again,
how we use our tools is up to us. Steve Jobs, the recently departed
genius behind Apple, taught by his example that the technologies we
create are nothing if they don’t help us build a better future and a
better life, if they don’t help us, as he said, “make a dent in the
universe.”
If
social media can give the voiceless a voice, can open shut doors, bring
people together, help us listen to each other better and take collective
action for the common good, we don’t mind the ironies so much.
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