Social Media Under Pressure: Influencing conflict

Social media can definitely guarantee exposure, which can, in political oppressive climates, almost guarantee containment and movement crushing.  Many of the social media campaigns launched with the hopes of reversing oppressive trends and politics often lose their momentum and either die out completely or are forced underground.

Other times, though, social media, when not blocked altogether, can ignite a rather unpleasant fire.  The anonymity of the Internet can be inviting, and thus, cause for people to join up with a movement who otherwise wouldn't. But, it can also breed another form of "justice", the finger pointing of blame.  While most people involved in the social change movement hope to utilize social media for that purpose, social media has the potential to target and blame.  This is one area deeply needing innovative brains; how to continue the use of social media to aggregate information, people and causes to better business, and the world while mitigating the negative name-calling and finger pointing that are possible.  How can we keep the ease of communication the Internet allows us without the accusation, and often, hypocrisy that is just as easy on the Internet?

One way is to use social media for good and not evil, and to celebrate those victories.  An article published last week on infozine.com discussed the possible role of Facebook (along with other Internet tools like eBay) in resolving grand-scale conflicts like that in the Middle East.  Of course, right now, this brilliant idea is still in the research phase, probably because the conundrum of social media - it can both create and perhaps solve conflict - is all too easy to recognize.  The experiment of "seeing what happens" when social media is turned loose for the general public has been tried (who hasn't been flamed on FB or Twitter?).  As senior researcher from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Ethan Zuckerman, said in the article posted by infozine.com,  "There is still an enormous amount that we don't understand about how social media works" for the good of the order.

There's also a lot about the rest of the world "we" don't understand.  The biggest hurdle to social media use in conflicts in the Middle East is that there is still, not surprisingly, a lack of Internet access in countries like Iran, Egypt and Iraq.  The longer these countries remain without majority access to the Internet, the more resentment and isolation will build.  So, it seems that social media, now that it is a part of our virtual world, will have to be incorporated into peace solutions in these parts of the world.  And that can be a tricky business, even without the oppression and cultural difference factors.

That's because there is always a risk of misusing the Internet and social media - most commonly the problems noted above.  But does that mean we should toss the baby (the potential for social media to be used for betterment) out with the bathwater of hypocrisy and flaming?  If social media has the potential to at least contribute to solution of many of the world's problems, either by allowing healing dialogue and social action, or by disseminating information to people who know how to use it, it should continue to be used.  What should be worked on, then, in the social media realm, is its ability to create conflict as much (or possibly more) as its ability to solve it.

Photo credit: Biojobblog.com