To many of my friends, colleagues and clients, social media essentially remains an avenue for hormonally imbalanced young men to chase skirts. Well, I can?t deny that amorous adventures will remain a primary motivation amongst that section of the audience and the scraps on Orkut bear testimony to this. But from this logic, even a college campus looks very similar. Observing the legendary chai shop outside the college (or its fancier caf? avatar), one may jump to a facile conclusion that the primary purpose served by the higher institute of education is to allow young boys and girls to pursue a romantic alliance or its derivatives. But even the biggest puritan will hesitate to write off a college as a frivolous playground for boy-girl interaction. That?s because, colleges are well-established social institutions and their usefulness (hopefully) is beyond doubt.
Social media, on the other hand, is yet to establish itself as a social institution?its usefulness is touted by the business community that probably bought overpriced stocks of loss-making companies. But it?s time to look beyond the commercial utilities of social media, to the way it is fundamentally impacting us as human beings.
The great advantage of social media is that it allows interpersonal communications at multiple levels. It allows one the officious coldness of an email as well as the intimacy/urgency of an SMS, with various shades in between. The birthday wish posting on a wall absolves you of the responsibility of announcing your level of intimacy to the recipient, who may choose from a vast array of possible meanings of the post. The medium allows that great flexibility. A piece of news or information one likes to share hardly ever gets across as brag?on the other hand, it gets interested people into a dialogue around the piece. In the real social space, the news/information will have to come with the required authority. Social media is capable of creating genuine sources of authenticity outside the type usually defined by authority and hierarchy.
Social media allows a judicious mix of proximity and distance. This is most evident in the way old collegemates or schoolmates reunite on social media. In the real world, the reunion is very dramatic?backslapping, a barrage of expletives (for men, of course), the promise of meeting every weekend and so on. But the euphoria is expectedly short-lived and the connection goes downhill from that point onward. Social media reunions are more pragmatic?old mates can keep tabs on each other without becoming involved in each other?s lives. The torture of going through a photo album in real life ( most of us have experienced this at the houses of friends or relatives) turns into a pleasurable experience on social media, because the choice is left with the viewer. Social media helps keep friendships alive because it doesn?t burden them with undue pressures. Another great aspect of social media communication is that silence is an extremely valid form of communication. A quiet ?like? button or a simple re-tweet saves a lot of words yet speaks volumes. Social media allows different forms of communication, from the frivolous to the soulful. Social media does this by empowering all individuals involved in the communication, by making sure nobody is under the social pressure of the communication.
Reclamation of personal space has defined the revolution in social communication. From visits to phone calls to mobile to SMS, we have created more individual space at every step. Social media is the next step in this revolution. It can adapt to allow the individual to feel comfortable. It?s completely up to the individual to use it as a noisy collegiate gathering, an affectionate family matter or a quiet, sober conversation. The unhappy soul in a job looks to social media to bail him out, an avid football lover can use it to vent his frustration, and long-lost friends can rediscover themselves through words and pictures. Social media helps the individual share his/her world without being disturbed by the presence of those that it?s shared with.
I want to illustrate the far-reaching impact of social media on our individual developments with a personal account. This is about a bereavement that I witnessed recently. The critical period when the treatment was going on was chronicled on a social medium. This allowed a huge number of people to come forward and express their solidarity and prayers?something that?s really awkward to express in the real world without the fear of disturbing the family. People poured in from all corners in support of the family and every little improvement was celebrated. However, prayers alone cannot solve all issues and much to the shock of everyone the person passed away. Before that day, I have never witnessed so much silence on social media with so many people being present there. The medium turned itself into the sombre room where people were just expressing their quiet support to the family. This poignancy was very impactful. I understood that social media is no longer just a pastime but has become a key mode of expression even before we realised it.
The author is managing partner, BBH India