Social Media for Social Reforms

Social media and its inhabitants, the "netizens", are a prominent force in today's world. They have exerted their influence in reviving a few dying careers, making super hits and igniting revolutions. The power that the online medium possesses is immense and the biggest reason is its openness. Netizens are not bounded by territory, nationality or any such biases of the physical world. This gives social media the power to distribute information to millions of people across the world at a rate which is unimaginable by any other medium.

These potentials of social media, however, have seldom been utilized for social reforms. Majority of social media reforms have been for political change or pure entertainment. Social media's first prominent use in political reform was probably in 2009-10 Iranian election protests when after the controversial election of Ahmedinejad and subsequent ban on media meant that all news that came from the country was through the social media. Netizens posted photos and videos of the atrocities of the Iranian government. Since then we have seen many other examples in the Arab spring.

There would be several other examples in the entertainment sector like Gangnam or Kolaveri but no social cause has attained that viral status till now. People might argue that the political reforms are the gateway to social transformation but the fact is that it is politics that evokes strong emotions and not destitution. Nevertheless, the opportunities are still numerous. The vast reach of it could be used for public activation campaigns but the internet penetration in our country is still pretty low and the socially deprived have restricted access to social media. It can be used instead for collecting donations and getting more people to join in for the cause.

Social reforms need a thorough debate on topics and a consequent gradual change in the mindset of the people. Social media has the potential to deliver on both these fronts but netizens are more active in the virtual world and less on the actual ground. It takes very different skills to implement things on the ground and it is difficult to run social movements from behind a screen. It can however be a very important enabler. It can help bring like minded people from across the globe to a common front.

There is this interesting story of McKenna Pope of how a young girl used social media to force a toy company to change it's positioning and make the "easy bake oven" more boys friendly. This demonstrates the power of social media to channel public opinion towards social reform. There are negative uses for every tool and similarly social media has been equally culprit of spreading rumors and social unrest on many occasions. The positives far exceed the negatives and hopes are high that maybe one day social media will be powerful enough to teach us how to respect women in our society.