We are in a digital world and an era where lots of things now pass through social media, including politics. Social media is that one tool that has influenced politics so much in my country, with both the positive and the negative sides.
The first influence is awareness. With social media, visibility is possible; somebody will be in Lagos, and the next person in Maiduguri is seeing the person and his or her manifesto, just like campaigning from anywhere in the world or within the political territory of that person. So it gives that visibility; the awareness it creates is effortlessly unlike the way we have had it in the past. Although it doesn't stop politicians from moving from place to place physically for their campaigns, it augments that effort. With social media, it goes everywhere at the click of a button.
So politically, social media has impacted and affected the political environment very positively. It doesn't keep people in the dark about voting for people they want to vote for. People can even ask questions that ordinarily they might not be able to if there's a manifesto. But now, there's Twitter Space, where everyone can join the space and ask politicians questions, unlike before, when we didn't have such an opportunity. You see, there are lots of positive influences politically that social media has brought.
Secondly, it helps to get to some particular demography. Now the aged, let's say the senior citizens, most of them might not be tech-savvy and might not be online; they might not be captured by the social media influence, but it captures the younger generations, which invariably have the highest number in terms of population. This is also an advantage because they are the people that make the changes; they are the heartbeat of the nation.
Now, about fact-checking, this is where it can be on the negative side for the politicians. Let me take our druggie president for an example; without the Internet, most of us don't even know the past of our current president. We don't even know that he was once a drug dealer, so it influences him negatively because even if he has changed, even if he does something by mistake or whatever, everything will come to light, the moment you declare that you want to run for a position. So it brings out the past, whether it's ugly or not; it brings it out. If it's something good, it will help him for the masses to know that he has achieved this or that in the past, but if it's something bad, like our president's case, it will still bring it out and should affect him, but it happened the way they wanted it during his own time of running for presidency.
Also, it's very easy for you to dish out your manifesto and show your past achievements, your abilities, and your qualifications. This info is easier to showcase on social media, and it goes viral, which we have seen in the recent past, unlike the way we were doing it manually and so analog in the past, going places to speak, and people forget. Now people cannot forget because things are now listed online; everything is there. People can just search your name, and with a click, everything you have done in the past will appear, and people can easily make their choices based on what they see you do or how good your manifestos are if they capture the desires of the people.
For the electorate, it gives them options of whom they want to vote for. Recently, there's this fast check; you can't just come and tell lies to the people; they will fast check you and know whether all you said is actually true. So social media has made it possible in this regard, and deceiving the people wouldn't be like before, where the politicians make bogus promises.
Having said that, there's always room for improvement, but in this case, I will say censorship. The same way we can fact-check and use this tool to do good, they can use this same tool to do bad. We have seen it a lot where they fabricate lies and make it go viral, and gradually we start believing the lies. It's called propaganda. They pick up a candidate and Photoshop or even use AI to do something and post it on social media, and then it goes viral. Then, doubting the person becomes easier. So censorship is very important so that the real essence will be achieved; otherwise, it turns into a weapon against your enemies, and it's difficult for you to actually defend yourself in that manner because the same way it goes viral for good, it goes viral for negative too, and people believe what they want to believe. It can easily tarnish the image of the people, especially the innocent ones.
This is one part I will love to see addressed. If there's a way every post should pass through a censored channel before it is posted, it becomes better. Just being so strict about censorship and knowing what to post, make sure that whatever you are posting is the truth and you have your source; you place it there because you can't just hide under your iPad and start destroying people. If given the opportunity, this is the part I would love to bring up a change to.
This post is in response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled, Social Media and Politics.
Images were taken from canva