Back in
2011, the trendy social media channels in the US and Europe were starting to
trend in Egypt and other countries of the Arab world. Incidents referred to as
the “Arab Spring” and the Egyptian revolution of 2011 helped increase users’ adoption of Facebook, Twitter,
and the internet in general.
People were curious
to experience these platforms, especially that politics was dominating the
cultural scene in Egypt, and a rising debate on traditional media channels was whether
“Facebook created the revolution”.
The Bachelors of Egypt Novel is set in this timeline, and one of its quotes is
used below to help demonstrate social media’s influence.
The well-known aspects
- Everyone is given a chance to express their opinions
- An interactive aspect of communication that was missing from traditional media channels
- Public journalism has been made possible and popular
- Easier access to information from anywhere in the world without censorship
The Lost Connection
Most papers,
books, and theoretical frameworks that were developed in regard to the internet’s
influence in general and social media’s influence on modern societies focus on
how this new form of media allows everyone a chance to express their views.
This theme
of analysis is missing two main elements that are unique to this kind of media:
- The Algorithms implemented by the owners of this new media
- How financial aspects play an important role in spreading ideas through these media channels
Algorithms and programming
Algorithm: “The process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations,
especially by a computer”.
In
case of social media platforms, with continuous advancements in the programming
field, we must acknowledge the influence of these algorithms on the potential
of spreading ideas and content on social media.
Through
machine learning, servers of Facebook, Twitter, Google… can understand the topic
of your content, and the sentiment of your text, images, videos… and can
comprehend the ideas you might be trying to promote. Accordingly, programmers
have the ability to determine which set of ideas/topics should be downplayed
and which would be intensified on their platforms.
Media
professionals and owners of traditional media channels have always been accused
of corruption, being the tools by which governments, political lobbies, and
some billionaires determine which topics shall people be concerned with and how
their perceptions should be influenced. With the same logic, we have to
understand that new media owners may play the same role, and instead of using
reporters, anchors, TV shows’ hosts, columnists… to shape public opinion, they
might be using server machines, programmers, reporters… to achieve the same
purpose.
Most
studies and research efforts on the issue may not have excluded Algorithms’
effect on purpose; it’s fair to say that most associated scholars acquire an
academic background in media, mass communication, or other fields that are separate
from computer science and programming.
The Financial Aspect
Social media platforms and other software applications have
different monetization models; however, the number of users and the level of
engagement per user are key factors that influence the amount of profit to be
generated by each platform. Engagement explains why the internet is full
of cute babies and funny dogs; the more any type of content is defined as engaging,
the more it may appear on these platforms.
No matter how important your message might be, it can never
beat a horse posing for a picture with a young girl:
(Images that broke the internet,
an express UK article)
Advertising is a common source of
revenue among most platforms, that’s why we have to consider advertisers’
interest as an important factor that influences these platforms. In terms of
Marketing, it’s usually better for each of them to focus on a specific set of
industries and aim to appeal to companies operating within them.
For instance, on Twitter, every
now and then you can view book related days and events trending, such as
#ReadABookDay or #BookLoversDay or others. Twitter as a platform appeals to
advertisers from the book publishing industry, allowing them chances to
advertise their books with links to purchase, or sponsor advertisements for their
long term authors to gain more followers. Whether or not some of these “Days”
were invented by Twitter in the first place doesn’t change the fact that the
platform’s algorithms might be set to help these hashtags become worldwide
trends.
Over the years, Twitter has
successfully positioned itself as a good place for book advertising, however, all
platforms usually compete to gain more advertisers from the booming markets
such as e-commerce, software and other IT related services.
Financial Aspects on Users’ Side:
You may have the world’s most
impressive piece of news, but not an advertising budget as huge as that spent
by the CNN, Fox News, or other conglomerates. Given that these platforms aren’t
charity organizations, and that they rely on advertising as an important source
of revenue, your exceptional story has acute chances of beating theirs.
Similarly, when you’re competing for exposure within any sort of industry, ad
spent money makes a huge difference, unless you post content that gets an
exceptional level of engagement like that of the cute girl and the posing
horse.
Other than advertisements, well
established institutions can provide hiring or outsourcing social media
professionals, experts in Marketing, Copwriting, Graphic Design, Photography… to
strategize and promote their posts, which keeps the world’s newest and freest
media biased toward giants.
The Social Impact of Social Media
What makes social media addictive
to some people and repulsive to others?
I received a request to answer this
question on Quora
Whydo some people choose not to have Facebook or any social media accounts? Do youthink these people are nuts or plain sad?
I tried
to avoid it because of its offensive/absurd wording, but somehow it kept
popping up and I couldn’t help but answer:
First
of all, calling people “Nuts” or “Plain Sad” because they don’t have social
media accounts is a disgraceful judgment.
We need
comprehensive research to understand “Why we do the things we do”.
As a
matter of fact, advancements in several fields of technology; including social
media platforms are beating advancements in all research fields; including
human behavior.
About
10 years ago, a popular finding among research papers on social media’s
influence was that it pulled people into a virtual state of nonsense, cutting
them off Real-Life social interactions, and turning most of them into attention
seekers, hungry for a “Like”, “Share”, “Retweet”…
On the
contrary, about 5 years ago, a popular finding among research
papers on the same topic was that the use of social media platforms have
surprisingly enriched people’s social lives. As you got a chance to connect and
stay in touch with someone that you haven’t met for long years, Facebook
reminded you of your aunt Jennifer’s birthday, which you never remembered on
your own, and platforms like Twitter have allowed for an exceptional experience
of cross-cultural interaction.
Both
sides have logical arguments that support their takes on whether social media
platforms have changed our lives to the better or worse. If Scholars come up
with different findings while using a scientific approach, we can only imagine
how internet users would make a decision in the same controversial manner:
·
Some people think
that Social Media is “Too Fake”, all about people bragging about their
achievements or trying to impose a certain social image for purposes of
self-branding, regardless of their genuine thoughts and beliefs… Others
may think that people’s interaction on these platforms is only a
reflection of their social interactions in Real-Life; if people aren’t genuine
on Social Media, they’re usually fake out of it as well.
·
Some people think
it’s absolutely absurd to share a Facebook status saying “I ate the best cheese
burger in my life, loved the cheese, and adored the burger”…Others may view the
same status as amusing.
·
Some people think
that these platforms turned us into attention seekers, doing whatever it takes
to earn a “Like”…. Others may believe in the influence of
positive vibes resulting from a single click; may it be a “Like”, “Share”, “Retweet”,
or “Upvote”.
·
Some people appreciate
the fact that Facebook reminded you of your aunt’s birthday… Others may
think that you should have remembered the birthday on your own, and
that such feature only made you a “Numb” member of the society, relying on
software applications to run your life for you.
·
Some people believe
in the power of these platforms as the means for Cross-Cultural interaction,
bringing people together, regardless of their age, gender, race,
nationality… Others believe that notions of Nationalism and National Exceptionalism are gaining
popularity across countries of the world, denying that social media have
brought anyone closer to “different people”.
Briefly, we can’t generalize a
single cause for all of those who stayed away from Social Media; and only
through more studies on the influence of this “New Media” on human behavior, we
can obtain the most common factors that led people to use/not-use these
platforms.
From the Novel
In chapter 5 of The Bachelors of Egypt,
Karim Adel expresses his personal view on the use of social media:
“A few links keep me
attached with those I call “Friends”, liking their pictures, or sharing one of
their achievements on Facebook are beyond the virtual world of Social Media,
these are statements that I still care, and wish them nothing but success and
happiness,” Karim Adel, 2011, The Bachelors of Egypt.
Books samples
available for review:
The Bachelors of Egypt on Amazon
World News and Politics
“Facebook created the Egyptian revolution”
was a foolish overstatement consumed across members of the Egyptian society,
and other groups affiliated with the issue. It’s fair to say that social media
platforms helped people across the world communicate, discuss, mobilize others
and raise awareness on local and global issues.
It is true that protests and sit-ins
in Egypt 2011-2013 were heavily promoted on social media platforms, pretty much
similar to events in countries, especially within the year 2011.
Revolutionary
incidents of 2011 are usually minimized and referred to as incidents of the
“Arab Spring”, what started with overthrowing the Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Egyptian president,
Mohamed Hosny Mubarak, killing the Libyan president, Muammar Gaddafi… In fact this era witnessed global incidents such as riots in Greece,
Rome, Occupy Wall Street in the United States, Mohamed Mahmoud Incidents in Egypt… and many other events that revealed how unhappy
people of the world have become with leaders of the world. With the global rise
in social media usage, groups of rebels and activists were informed with real
time progress of their companions in any of the world’s hotspots. Their
universal connection was based on hopes for a better future, a common belief
that they were capable of achieving it, and anger toward political systems and
leaders.
On the other side, the traditional bias of several media
channels while covering news events can still be witnessed with the use of
social media.
Last week, many incidents happened in the world, including a mass
shooting in the US, protests in Cameroon and England, independence referendum
in Spain… all were covered on news websites and social media platforms,
however, comparing the coverage of Cameroon’s incidents with Spain’s might be
interesting.
Nearly 900 people were injured when Spanish police forces
moved to stop Catalonia’s independence referendum. The issue was widely covered
and went viral within the same day, almost any internet users who care about
global matters were informed with statements of the Spanish Prime Minister, and
Catalonia’s governor… allowing anyone to dig deeper into the background of the
problem and takes sides.
17 people were killed in Cameroon’s protest, when they had a
very similar objective like the people of Catalonia; they were also calling for
the independence of a part of the state of Cameroon. This may not be a huge
surprise in a world where you need to remind people that ‘Black Lives Matter’.
It may even be more complicated to remind those people that lives of people
living in any other country should actually matter.
Multiple factors may have influenced the frequency of
coverage, including the level of internet usage in African countries, global
internet users’ interests, the fact that many people across the world look at
Europe as a place where human rights are somehow protected… however, the bias
almost remains the same, before and after the internet, newspapers and TV
channels would have given a higher rank to the Spanish problem anyway. Oppression
is equally unacceptable in any place, and people should maintain the right to
decide their future.
Another example from a few weeks earlier was the combination
of a hurricane and an earthquake hitting Mexico, the event was covered and
people around the world were praying for Mexico. On the same week, Kim
Kardashian was trying a new bikini, and images, videos, articles about her new
bikini were dominating the internet. If she tried a new bikini on the week of
Spain’s and Cameroon’s incidents, they may have both been kept in the shadows.
The usual claim that social media made people “Air headed”
can’t be a fair assessment of the situation, the exposure of content on these
platforms might be manipulated, but your choice as a user was never absent. Just
like you can choose which TV channels to watch, you get to choose whether to
spend your time on Facebook, Twitter, or other platforms, you also get to
choose the topics, pages, and accounts to follow.
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