Social media stories are more creative than printed novels
Introduction
The rise of social media as the most powerful medium of communication began with the new millennia. With the dot com boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, a new form of the medium was taking shape through and developing the internet. It wasn’t a mere passenger of the wave that took over the world; instead, it was the proliferator of it. Companies like Facebook have set up infrastructure in the world’s poorest continent, Africa, to provide coverage to the people and make them part of the global community. Now receivers of these services believe Facebook as the internet itself rather than being part of it.
The rate at which social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have amassed people in the medium, which was unknown to the masses two decades ago and was only the part of research in academia and military, is unprecedented.
With the new medium, the rate at which the information flows and how it flows has also evolved. Before social media, information sharing was only limited to printed media and broadcasting media. Social media garnered an audience that flocked out of their own free will and has stuck since.
As always is the case, whenever a new medium arises, the old medium has to adjust or be in the danger of rendering obsolete.
Like when Henry Ford started mass-producing the Ford T model, the horse carriages began to disappear and became obsolete in just a few years in the United States.
Similarly, with the dawn of digital media and social media, we wonder the same happens to these mediums and are social media movements more powerful and impactful than their printed counterparts.
In the next two sections, I will be presenting arguments in favor of and against the motion, respectively.
Social media is becoming the primary medium. In 2020, the number of social media users was 3.6 billion, which is expected to rise to 4.41 billion in 2025. The 18-29 age group saw the highest participation, with more than 90% percent being part of social media in the United States, which will soon become a world trend.
On the other hand, Printed media accounted for 2.5 billion participants in 2019, with mainly adult age-groups being the dominant share. This number is expected to decline soon as the millennials and generation z become adults.
In modern times with so much of the narrative being form online, a shift of focus has taken place from the conventional form of media towards new media.
In social movements, Twitter, the public social networking site, has become more efficient. In addition to being a collective platform, Twitter builds transparency, privacy, protection, and interpersonal trust among the activists.
Twitter’s ability to be a highly efficient platform for information dissemination and rapid information spread on the web enables activists to take prompt action to mobilize quickly.
The use of hashtags, which makes the information searchable and more visible to others, started on Twitter with the first hashtag used in Aug 2007. It has taken over the world of social media, becoming an integral part of how people interact with social media.
Printed media comes under government authorities’ supervision, which in turn leads to hindrances of critical information ever coming out. They have the power to censor or ban the printed media from stopping the spread of information.
A Pulitzer-winning author, Joseph Lelyveld, wrote the biography on M.K. Gandhi’s life in South Africa and his time later as Mahatma. The memoir titled, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India, which the Gujrat government unanimously banned due to how Lelyveld dealt with Mahatma’s celibacy.
Printed novels are subject to scrutiny & are prone to biases due to them being subject to monetary commitments towards stakeholders and themselves.
Oftentimes than not, printed media is guilty of pleasing their target audiences. Since people have tendencies to flock towards positive information and information which tends to be similar to their beliefs, they are not exposed to alternative facts.
Considering the above points, social media is advantageous because anyone can spread information on it. Then people are free to decide if the information should be shared or not.
Another factor that the printed media lacks is the Spill-over Effect, where one movement can give birth to a plethora of movements elsewhere, which then can spring more movements and spread like wildfire.
One such movement was Arab spring, an online movement that started in early 2011 in Egypt against oppressive regimes and a low standard of living. The movement would then start a revolution in the rest of the Arab world with varying degrees of success. The movement is a prime example of social media’s power where everyone, regardless of money and status, can voice their opinion and a platform to be heard. In contrast, the printed media is controlled and authored by very few.
#FreeAJStaff
This was an online campaign orchestrated by one of the biggest and first English broadcaster of the middle east, Al Jazeera. During the military coup of 2013 in Egypt, three journalists of Al Jazeera were accused of being part of the Muslim brotherhood, the then ruling party of Egypt, and detained by the military. The ensuing uproar caused by the said journalist’s family and friends on social media created a movement that was later taken over by the Al Jazeera media network. Instead of relying on their traditional journalistic methods, the media network relied on social media and, in particular, Twitter to force Egypt into releasing the detainees. The Egyptian government was reluctant to let them go. Still, as the movement grew due to Al Jazeera’s efforts and twitter’s ability to be interconnection globally, # FreeAJStaff was tweeted by world leaders such as Barack Obama. Finally, journalists were released in 2015.
Twitter as a medium is much more potent than the traditional mediums since people follow whom they see as inspirational and spiritual leaders who can then enlighten their millions of followers with a significant social or cultural movement and help spread awareness on a faster scale both in space and time.
Printed Media
For the last 600 years, printed media has been the primary source of news and information for the vast majority of the world. They have stood the test of time and remain the primary source of thorough and researched information.
Although Broadcasting mediums such as television and Radio presented themselves as the alternative to the printed medium, they rose through the challenge and evolved to be stronger than ever. As stated earlier, 2.6 billion people still read printed forms of journalism. That is much more than what it was 100 years ago.
Social media has presented itself as the new challenger, it boasts itself as the fastest and most widespread form of media, but that itself is its demise. Since social media reaches a very diverse and extensive group, its tendency to move on to the next best thing tends to leave everything in dust and forgotten. Every movement does spread awareness, but it isn’t etched in the long-term memory of masses. On the other hand, Printed media considers the facts and provides a detailed report for everyone to see, read and form their judgment, which will remain with them forever.
The Arab spring campaign, although it started a revolution by masses against oppressing regimes, had success to a varying degree. For instance, wherever it failed, Yemen is forgotten with each passing movement, and citizens of Yemen find themselves in miserable conditions for years to come.
Printed novels provide a much clearer and more academic perspective, which social media is incapable of. Social media is the first layer of the communication channels. It gives an exposure to the audience but doesn’t provide the full picture provided by printed media.
Studies have shown that using a hashtag does draw audience attention to the cause but is detrimental to an online discussion around pressing social topics in the long run. Since people come across hashtags every passing, they become immune to them, studies have shown when a controlled group of people is demonstrated news with a hashtag and without a hashtag, they tend to read the news without the hashtag and take its contents more seriously[1]
As is the case with everything, human brains tend to forget negative emotions and memories to make positive ones. People tend to ignore social trends and causes. They are very dismissive of the movements such as metoo movements. They don’t want to hear it at the place where they are supposed to have fun.
In the long run, social media is doing more harm than good for the betterment of the world. It dilutes the issues by presenting them thick and fast, which in turn hinders the thorough discussion needed to put any topic to bed can only be possible in printed media.
References
[1] https://theprint.in/features/hashtags-like-metoo-blacklivesmatter-make- people-view-the-news-as-less-important/328674/
[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305118760807
[3] https://www.relevance.com/print-still-matters-in-2019/
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social- network-users/
[5] https://www.statista.com/statistics/222668/usage-of-printed-books-and-e- books-by-category/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring
