Is social media a positive instrument for political debate, action & communication?

Is social media a positive instrument for political debate, action & communication?        

        Since the 20th century, technologies have taken such a significant place in our lives and more recently, so does social media. #MeToo has been broadcast all over the Western world and seems to have had an impact on women’s condition. The question is whether we should always consider social media as a positive instrument, for political debate, action and communication.

        At first sight, it appears clear that social media can have a positive impact. Indeed, by gathering people from all over the world together, in large numbers and quickly, fighting for a same cause, it makes it listened. As such, #BalanceTonPorc was able to make French President Emmanuel Macron recognise that something needs to be done in order to improve women’s conditions. More than that, injustices can be put at light in real time as it happened during Arab Spring.

        Therefore, only putting forward the positive uses of social media would be changing the reality, which is to say that social media is an instrument way more controversy then what it appears to be firstly. Misinformation is everywhere and “fake news” is now usual : people are unlikely going to be able to think it through. All the more so as social media reinforces echo-chambers. However, social media’s consequences are not exclusively linked to the way of informing people, because it is also a powerful political tool. Be that as it may, one can argue that it is difficult to have a real debate in less than 280 characters, for instance.

        In the final analysis, let us highlight that social media is an instrument so it is not predestined to be used in a certain way or another.  In fact, it depends on us to make it a useful tool in order to communicate, act or debate. And as such, it also relies on us whether we give some dubious tweets attention or not.