I often wonder how the generation changed in Pakistan. How do people younger to me live their lives? What is the motivation and what are their pastimes, how do they make sense of the life cycle? There are naturally many many reasons. One can't just compartmentalize life like inanimate matter. To make it simple I look for the "instruments of identity", something very crucial for young men and women. I will narrow it down to the educated population of young Pakistan. Here I face the digital divide. What severs me from the younger people is their communication advantage. Cell phones, Media, the new media like Facebook and Twitter.
These young men and women have a very global platform for the formation of their identity. In good old days we used to say, "if you don't have good enough friends in the immediate environ, look for wiser, ageless friends, read books. We used to read books. Then we started watching television and got into the world of 24/7 TV, the breaking news syndrome, the soup operas, and the replication of cultural formats through imitation and interaction.
But this is not the end of it. The newest identity instruments are the interactive social media. There is a lot of talk about the potential of this social media to transform the transitional societies. The recent developments in the Islamic world beginning with the unrest in Iran a couple of years earlier and heightening in the present day turmoil in the Middle East harkens for a realistic analysis of the role of this highly trumpeted new savoir. The Arab Spring has entered into The Winter, but the euphoria has yet to be analyzed.
While talking about Pakistan the first and foremost question is about the present usage of the social media. This should also be put within the context of the number of users and then their usage. The country has dipping literacy rates, sprawling poverty, and problems like access to Internet. Even electricity is an elusive phenomenon in this country for the last many years, let alone its dependent instruments like Internet.
This makes Facebook and Twitter a privilege. There could easily be two views about it. One it is pastime of the rich, and two, it is pastime of those who are educated, or urban, or at least have access to the Internet. Unlike mobile phone, it is not a peoples’ gadget. In fact, both the ideas are true, but the latter bears more weight than the former. Internet is cheap and so are computers in the Pakistani market. So, what you need is access. In small towns and villages young men and women are surfing on their cell phones. So, the cell phone revolution has taken technology quite a few steps further. Although FB and twitter options are not available on Blackberries and cell phones in Pakistan (or they come and go), one can always access the email account to see the messages on the social media and enjoy the colourfulness of the page whenever there is access. Although Blackberry access is limited to post paid accounts, Internet surfing could easily be done on prepaid ones. Almost everyone has more than one pre paid sims. The cheaper Chinese cell phones with BB functions as well as lowering of the prices of the branded ones gives boost to the number of users.
Now technologically speaking access to Internet is possible to more people across the financial border than it is widely believed. But this theoretical reality is challenged by another factor, namely education. Yes, from a financial and theoretical perspective it is possible for everyone having a cell phone to avail Internet and, in turn, the social media. But in reality one needs enough education to use and operate the social media. Access is also limited to urban centres and the social media is not offered on simple surfing. This takes the real fun out of the whole socialisation paradigm. The social media are primarily fun media. In every corner of our present day world it began as entertainment. People enjoyed the chats, the pictures, and the gossip; and then like everything new getting matured entered into the phase of development. This phase of organizing social opinion of getting an alternative platform for debate is not the very essence of social media, but is, in fact, the outcome of user fatigue after the fun gadget loses its fun charm.
The question that comes to ones mind immediately is about the usage of the social media by the ones who have the luxury to use it. They use it as a pastime. This is the most common answer one gets. The issue of preference of FB over Twitter is the more self-presentation options the former provides than the latter. There is a group of people, journalists mainly, who prefer Twitter to FB. These are mostly managers or administrators. They follow the celebrities, other channels, and most of the international media on Twitter. “It doesn’t need to request for friendship. In fact, there is no friendship on Twitter. You just share things,” said one journalist.
But for the common user, the educated, young it is interaction, looking for partners and loving gossip, FB is more attractive. “One can post photos, have a long chat on a single post, also has the option of chatting with individuals while posting on the page.” The question of turning the tide is an important one to consider. Namely, is it possible to turn the gossip and chat box into a platform for democracy? Potentially, the answer is yes. Practically, it is not in sight. The moment of happening is not known. The direction is not towards human rights, discourse on immediate, regional, or global issues, and other relevant actions for support of democratic discourse.
The present usage is most of the time a supplement to the mainstream media. News from the mainstream are posted and discussed. The discussions on the postings do not go very far. These never add another dimension to the original content from the mainstream media. But we should keep in mind that this is not simply a Pakistani issue. A UC Berkeley study shows that in the US, over a period of 10 years, only 10% content on FB was original. 90% remains cut-paste or chat. This shows the real use of social media, especially FB. It remains an interactive platform among friends. The word friends naturally has a different meaning than the traditional one. The old use of the word ‘distant friends’ for books has now been transformed into ‘virtual friends in real time’. The reality of their being and the instant interaction is something really amazing.
At this point one can talk about supporting a movement, discourse on democracy, and other such angles. But the trend in vogue doesn’t seem to encourage this development. We either have to wait for the level of maturity at a global level or engineer a debate. The former will take time while the latter is unethical. It is like the notorious ‘lesbian blogger from Syria’. This is not an option, because it will ruin the very credibility of an interactive process meant for good. So, the best option is to wait and see. The last and most important word of caution could be that social media mouse clicks are no alternative to active participation in actions for democracy, human rights, and social change. The lazy clicks won’t change the world, no matter how many millions these could be. Awareness is not action. In fact, action is awareness.
