2014: A year of being socially incorrect?

What’s that saying? Good news doesn’t sell. Definitely not on social media. The last 12 months have seen Indians putting expression and opinion at the heart of their lives (and timelines). If someone were to map a qualitative chart of the expressions of people, vitriol would have the tallest bar. It’s been the year of the intolerant, opinionated, bull-dozing Indian online. Followers became leaders, went from being tweeps or facebookers to influencers.  

Social media took people far apart and in some instances brought them together. India yo-yoed from the rise of the fringe elements of the Sangh Pariwar, Gandhi to godmen to Godse, hailed the faceless fundamentalists to debating gay rights and gang rape. It’s been an outrageous year humbled by three devastating airplane crashes/disappearances, a horrific attack in Peshawar and the Sydney incident. 

THE BIG CONNECT

At the start of 2014, when India was in election mode, the sheer decibel power of social media reflected a sentiment that was temporarily dismissed as right-wing bravado. But the vote-verdict, a clear mandate to Narendra Modi stumped those ideas signalling that social media indeed reflected a strong anti-Congress which wore colours of saffron and was indeed the real sentiment on the ground. We had some comic (and ironic) moments during the transition of the @PMOIndia handle to the new PM. I believe first Manmohan’s PMO wasn’t keen to give up the official handle with the then @PMOIndia wanting to save all the interactions and tweets of the time. For posterity sake, one supposes there are emotional attachments involved or maybe a lack of proper knowledge of how this medium functions. On a lighter note though, it’s funny how the twitter handle has become sticky – like the ‘kursi’ itself. No one wants to leave. Power is after all addictive. Even on twitter.

MODI MEGAPHONE EFFECT

Modi edified the use of social media. Every Indian political leader realised the power of putting it to work, by realisation or by force. Most expected a political death for microblogging sites after the elections but it only increased and innovated. Politicians still use both FB and twitter to actively update what they are doing and how they are addressing issues or simply sharing selfies. See how Shivraj Chauhan, D Fadnavis, Raman Singh use various platforms now. Agreed redressal has not been the order of the day and the political machinery continues to use it as a one way media more than an engagement space. But contrary to popular expectation, Modi did connect more. He got to know about the death of his friend’s wife via a correspondent on twitter and he thanked the reporter for the same. Modi also used his space to get more people on his Swachh Bharat campaign. He used it for diplomacy, the latest being a birthday wish for Nawaz Sharif. 

Among other parties, one has to credit the Aam Aadmi Party for their consistency and bang-bang approach to being an opposition online. They continue to use the power of their network to build on their popularity amongst the righteous youth power, deride right-wing politics and throw research at them. Congress has vanished, if not died completely from social media except for its new age yet political novice young torch-bearers in Sanjay Jha and Priyanka Chaturvedi. Shashi Tharoor, who could really be their best megaphone, was tragically (and stupidly) sidelined by the party. Rahul Gandhi did say cheers with Vine this Christmas. In the 6-second video put out by the Congress, Gandhi shared the season’s greeting. Could this be a prelude to the young scion joining twitter? Only he knows. 

HASHTAG POLITICS

The best hashtag war of this year was to do with and within AAP. #Mufflerman was the third biggest tag as per twitter trends while #QuitAAP was not too far below at sixth. #Pappu and #Feku took a back seat after the election verdict but not before Rahul Gandhi’s first TV interview with Arnab Goswami created viral waves online. Meanwhile in the new government, the army of Modi fans ensured the PM trended wherever he was - from Madison Square to MCG. One to court continuous controversy was the new HRD Minister Smriti Irani whose claims of having studied at Yale forced hashtags like #6DayYaleDegree and #CelebDegree trend. 

SELFIES & CHALLENGES

India jumped on to the selfie bandwagon with PM Modi tweeting his finger with the black ink spot right after voting and then with his mother after winning the elections. Aam Aadmi Party launched a campaign ‘Selfie with the Mufflerman’ to revive Arvind Kejriwal’s popularity. At the Oscars, host Ellen DeGeneres did a group selfie with Hollywood’s top actions triggering two million retweets to create a world record. Now we can buy selfie sticks and selfie phones, that have a sharper front camera.

GRIEF GETS THEM TOGETHER
    
2014 was a tough year as airline tragedies struck the world. #MH370, #AirAsia and the #Ukraine plane disaster had social media exchange and share every bit of information for knowledge and help. The #Peshawar attack in every sense reflected that #IndiaWithPakistan was humanity beyond borders. Widespread unity in the media presence online about the several number of journalists kidnapped or went missing covering war zones.

SOCIALLY SMART

Two brilliant stories hit social media headlines from entertainment stars. Deepika Padukone took on behemoth Times of India for playing up a video clip that promoted her revealing cleavage. Padukone questioned their intent sending social media into a spin of support and a debate on gender representation in mainstream media. Alia Bhatt, who started 2014 being the butt of all jokes on WhatsApp for her dim general knowledge decided to play along with her mockers. She starred in a stand-up comic group's video that poked fun at her, making it trend far more than the scorns against her. To a smaller extent, Kalki Koechlin did a video to share how women in India are treated.

One statistic says India’s 250 million internet users will go upto 500 million in the next three years and most of these will come online via their mobiles. This essentially meant social media platforms will remain the heartland of conversation and discourse dissemination. When I wrote the book The Big Connect: Politics in the Age of Social Media it caught the pulse of political leaders mastering social media, with the spread of cheaper devices loaded with features. I think I should prepare to navigate the entire landscape of Indian society,which is taking fancy of social media to discuss every sphere of life. Social media will help find solutions, share feelings, interact, sympathise, react but it will also surely magnify the anger, which people need to express from time to time. Social media is here, is not a passing storm, and promises to evolve itself and change you with every step.

Shaili Chopra is an award winning journalist and a digital entrepreneur