Social media and politics

The term social media is known to many Pakistanis now but is mainly misunderstood. Many limit the social media to social networking sites whereas it includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Social media in Pakistan has evolved into many shapes from being used for communication with friends or advertisements. Political parties have now also started using social media for interaction with their supporters. Social media can be an important tool for political parties to communicate to a large number of people as Pakistan has 113 million of mobile users and 5.9 million Facebook users and about 21 million internet users.
PTI and PML(N) are the two Pakistani political parties acting as social media giants. PTI is there on social networking site since last 3-4 years whereas PML(N) just launched there Facebook page in November 2011. Social media has allowed both parties to communicate more effectively to the public. Many have termed PTI as a social media terrorist because of their hostile behaviour towards criticism. As soon as you post something against Imran Khan or PTI, you should be ready to have the comment list filled with abuses by the PTI fans. To draw a comparison, PML(N) has used its medium of social media responsibly and in an effective way.
One should realise that only limited audience uses social media and work should be done on ground level rather than establishing a Facebook government. PML N’s “Kal kay Quaid” seems a promising event for finding leaders among youth rather than PTI using youth to abuse on social media. Now as I have criticized PTI a bit, I shall be open to receive abusive comments from PTI-wallahs.
MAJID TAMOOR
Lahore