The Role of Social Media in Modern Politics

Social Media & Politics

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“Social Media and Politics” could be a complete sentence nowadays. I’m thrilled, astonished, shivering, and feeling blessed to write something on this topic. I’m 50 years old, and all of you can consider me as backdated. In my student life, I acknowledged about computer the blessing of modern science, which was a general idea, but excellent. Then I have seen another new era of mobile phone, a great innovation and invention of technology, which goes further with the implementation, adoption, and the media of the smart mobile phone, as social media. At first time I never liked to accept social media and also did not adopt that in my practice in my life. Because of many more misuse, misconceptions, and misunderstandings, I consider social media a time-pass and entertainment option for the young generation, like students, other unemployed people, and think that nothing more can be gained from those platforms, and ignore them. Gradually, I found social media as a medium of communication and a source of income for many people, which is excellent. But I did not have enough knowledge about this social media and its platform, I only knew them by their naming as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/ X, Snapchat, etc. My daughter and my niece, who have enough knowledge and an implementation idea, influence me to think again about the importance of social media. It’s not only limited to media, it has more than sufficient power beyond its meaning and existence, after seeing the protest against the fascist government of Bangladesh, and as a result, the present interim government and its chief advisor, Dr. Mohammad Yunus, as a country leader.

The influence of social media on that protest in July 2024 was unbelievable, effective, and the most powerful ever, I thought. It was a complex protest of students, the young generation, political parties, and related to social media directly. The fascist government tried to stop the protest over social media by blocking the whole country from the internet. The fascist government willingly internet blackout on the whole country for a week and claimed a fire at the internet data center, and put this issue on the protestors’ shoulders. But nothing could stop them, and by the 5th August, Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh,she had to go away from this country, and the nation got back their independence and victory again. It was the biggest example of the power of social media, and in politics, too. We can also find some examples in the USA elections from a few years back, but all those were full of controversy and not trustworthy at all. But the protest of July 2024, was proved that social media has a big role and power in politics, and the whole world was a witness to this power, and the relationship between politics and social media is undoubtedly. I feel proud of myself to be a direct eyewitness to this protest and the power and influence of social media in politics, which brings new independence and achieves victory for Bangladeshi people, and has a great leader like Dr. Mohammad Yunus, who is not a politician at all.

The politicians and their voters can communicate over social media, and get benefits from there easily nowadays, it’s a proven utilization. The politician can promote their manifesto and vision through social media; on the other hand, voters can provide their requirements and obligations to their leader through social media easily, and also can share their thoughts, even protest them. In the long run, we can see it as beneficial for both politicians and their voters. I’m not well interested in either politics or social media also don't have enough knowledge of those, but if possible, I wish to change the misconception, false news, unauthentic elements, and control the misuse of social media and politics. I wish to see a fresh, clear, and trustworthy political atmosphere and the proper utilization of social media in this respect.

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