There is no doubt that social media is here to stay. History teaches us that it is impossible to turn the clock back indefinitely to any form of technological advancement. Less still when modern technology (in some form or another) is now embraced by the large majority of the world's population. And more-so as technology continues to develop at a pace which we will hardly recognise in 20 years' time and become even cheaper and more accessible.
Just think of what modern life was like before the advent of personal computers, mobile and internet. Television was most people's daily source of information (if you could afford one). Newspapers were mass produced in printed form but it's readership was still relatively limited in proportion to the overall population. Radio provided not just news and entertainment to a much larger audience but also became the principal medium by which politicians obtained (and hoped to retain) political power. Yet the direct participation of the masses in the traditional media was limited, controlled and often subject to censorship.
Now go back five hundred years to the other greatest technological advancement of our time, the invention of the printing press. Often lauded as revolutionary, the printing press turned the publication of books/pamphlets into a commercial (and later political) enterprise and made information far more accessible than it had ever been before. Although literacy (and monetary power) was still limited to an elite, the new technology was quickly exploited to challenge the existing world and religious order, giving way to the Reformation and later Counter-Reformation. As literacy levels gradually increased among the population, the impact of the printing press (as the medium for sharing information quickly and in large numbers) was felt in every revolution, including most notably, the American Civil War and French and Russian Revolutions.
Turn the clock back again to life before the printing press. This was a world where information travelled very slowly (if at all), ancient manuscripts were stored and laboriously copied down the ages but more often than not were lost at some point. Whatever knowledge then survived man's propensity for destruction was kept alive by future generations of scholars (largely under state patronage), with manuscripts almost never surviving in their original language. Information invariably manifested itself in religious and later ideological conflict controlled by the ruling and religious classes, where the masses played no direct role in the production or propagation of information.
Enter the modern age of technology and with it the greatest social revolution in history. The world could never be the same again and it is not difficult to see why.
The internet has become the largest depository of information the world has ever seen, without geographical boundaries and accessible to everyone with a smart phone or computer. This has brought incalculable benefit in the field of knowledge and education. It has also been hugely transformational. Views once ventilated online can spread instantaneously around the globe. Influencing public (or indeed global) opinion is no longer the exclusive commodity of a few. Social media posts are more widely read than newspaper editorials or columns. Real life events and images can be transmitted electronically and forwarded to an unlimited audience. The age of street protests, which since the beginning of civilisation was the cornerstone of every revolution (successful or otherwise), has given way to social media activism (from the relative comfort of one's home).
This has become even more powerful given that modern technology, in theory, allows anyone remotely and at the press of a key to acquire a mass following. Politicians have lost their almost exclusive right to have their voices or messaging heard via the traditional media (television and radio), through direct participation by the public on social media channels. Governments and politicians can also be held directly to account without reliance on the traditional media. All this, of course, presents some stresses and challenges. When information is no longer a ‘reasoned opinion', it is easier to accept alternative facts (or plain falsehoods) and even conspiracy theories.
Still, social media is as vital to freedom and democracy as diversity and tolerance. Subject to the confines of the law, the imparting of information can no longer be controlled. Nor should it. The public's sense of empowerment through social media channels may well have become as valued as the right to vote itself. Indeed, universal suffrage is now the key fundamental component of democracy whatever the electoral outcome may be.
The views expressed in this article by the author are solely those of the author.
Originally Published by Hassans, February 2021
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