Fire: A social media manifesto.

 It is very ironic that the most powerful and important tools most often possess destructive

capabilities too, just as today’s media has made it easy for misinformation and other problems to

spread easily in society. Just like fire, I believe the benefits social media possesses far outweigh its

consequences and therefore we should not be afraid of it but embrace it into our daily routines and

be intentional about how we use it. We should prevent censorship from private companies and

fight for personalized algorithms that enable us to access the specific information we want. We

should welcome the evolution of journalism into a more dynamic and accessible digital form.

For the first time ever in the history of humanity, storytelling has been simplified and made

unimaginably efficient, to suit an individual’s needs and this makes social media an essential

service that we must protect and continuously mold to satisfy our desires. One could go surfing in

Slovakia and not have to wait to gather an audience to tell them about their experiences, they can

easily share that information on Twitter, on a blog, or maybe on Instagram and the audience will be

able to consume the media themselves. The reception of the story is no longer reserved for having

to wait on a professional documentary film that you do not relate to at all or reading from a

newspaper article from an overworked journalist who perhaps, only enjoys fishing. The advent of

social media enables us to follow individuals who share our principles and ideas of leisure, making

the media we consume custom-made for us and as opposed to the traditional average of what the

majority appreciates watching. YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and Facebook facilitate short take

video creations and editing, at the same time providing non-diegetic sound and preventing the

infringement of copyright laws. Modern-day media technologies have demystified film editing by

making film editing tools easily accessible to the public, enabling individuals to tell the specific

stories they need to tell. Freedom is a fundamental constituency of our day-to-day living, and the

power of social media has amplified our freedom to tell our own stories as undiluted as we want

them told. It has given us control over what aspects of the mise en scene we want in our images or

the tone and language we use to communicate with the world.

The versatility of modern media can be used as a tool to vehemently protect our democratic values

and give headaches to oppressive regimes. It has proved to be inevitably intertwined with politics

and despite social media being blamed for injecting flaws in democracy, it has only existed for a

mere 10 years, and that conclusion is still premature to make (Margetts). Media have equipped

ordinary and most importantly, young people to fight for justice, we have seen this through

“#enough” as young people protested about school shootings and “black lives matter” as citizens

from several countries across the globe demonstrated their support for the African community and

protested the treatment the police constantly gave to them. The internet has enabled the

development of WikiLeaks and similar organizations which are generally admirable in their

single-minded view of transparency and openness (Rusbridger). Governments can now operate

with the knowledge of the possibility of widespread criticism and repercussions if they secretly

ignore their constitutional obligations. The world around us is making noise at young people,

aiming at thwarting their voices by restricting their access to social media, making claims of

diplomacy and international cyber warfare, and mental health concerns which have proved to be

inconclusive (Parks). There is an influx of studies ignoring how correlation is not causation, and

whether greater social media usage leads to poor mental health outcomes or whether those who are

depressed and unhappy are drawn to spend more time on social media (Parks). Could this

excessive discouragement from using social media be propaganda and actions of the old guard?

Young people should use their youthful energy on social media to advocate for the change they

want to see, they should listen to and support each other and create large digital footprints that

cannot be ignored, without the paranoia of their ideas being Chinese or Russian-influenced (Sloss).

As young people, we can now use social media as a rebirth of journalism. The need for

professional journalists to cross borders to share information is not essential anymore, we can

simply search for the events happening in a specific corner of the world and get firsthand

information. Our world today exists in a constant state of mayhem, with several inequalities, wars,

hunger, starvation, and oppression which before the age of Twitter and Facebook could easily go

unnoticed and unsolved. Professional journalists should claim their place in the digital world as

plausible sources of information by using these plentiful resources for their benefit. On the other

hand, it is our duty as young media consumers to discern the credibility of all the sources around

us. Twitter facilitates a many-to-many communications pattern which was traditionally impossible

throughout the radio, TV, and print media days and this enables the audience to participate in the

process of news distribution through criticizing and correcting their sources. It can be argued that it

brought about the democratization of news distribution, people no longer have a one-to-many

relationship with their news source, where they cannot contribute or question with a large reach,

what is being said. Despite the grave concerns of amateurs spreading the news on platforms like

Twitter, it is also noteworthy that 94% of journalists in the United States use social media for their

jobs (Jurkowitz, 2022), therefore providing a skeleton for legitimate and professional news.

Amidst rampant fears of fake news, junk science, computational propaganda, and aggressive

micro-targeting and political advertising (Margetts), as young people, we can trust our collective

intuition to lead us to the truth. We should, under no circumstances, allow the government or any

private institutions to censor the information we receive. The future of social media is currently

pointing in the direction of it being regulated, filtered, and diluted and that will be a breach of our

liberties. Milton Friedman believed in a free market system, in which superior products would be

favored by the consumers (Schultz). Similarly, theories about the “marketplace of ideas” are

based on Friedman’s analogy and therefore condemn censorship and encourage the free flow of

ideas (Schultz). As we bask in the warmth of Facebook and Twitter, we should also remain

watchful of the loopholes that now exist in the first amendment which only prohibits government

censorship. Censorship laws should apply to private companies too!

Fire is painful and destructive, but it has been the cornerstone of our evolution as humans.

Similarly, social media is also a double-edged sword that could either destroy us if used carelessly

or could accelerate globalization and water the liberation seeds. Private companies are the last

huddle to the creation of a true marketplace of ideas, their operation outside the first amendment

gives them an undeserved social responsibility for over 60% of the world who use social media

(Maine). It is also essential that we use social media in an intelligent and ethical way in our

personal lives, in a way that enables us to share and encourage passionate storytelling as we

connect with other members of society.

Sources used:

1. Jurkowitz, M., & Gottfried, J. (2022, June 27). Twitter is the go-to social media site for U.S.

journalists, but not for the public. Pew Research Center. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/27/twitter-is-the-go-to-social-media-site-for-u-s-jo

urnalists-but-not-for-the-public/

2. HELEN MARGETTS, 9. rethinking democracy with social media - wiley online library.

(n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2022, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.12574

3. Parks, M. (2021, May 18). Facebook calls links to depression inconclusive. these researchers

disagree. NPR. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/990234501/facebook-calls-links-to-depression-inconclusive-these

-researchers-disagree

4. Rusbridger, A, Guardian News and Media. (2011, January 28). Wikileaks: The Guardian's

role in the biggest leak in the history of the world. The Guardian. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jan/28/wikileaks-julian-assange-alan-rusbridger

5. David Schultz (Updated June 2017 by David L. Hudson). (n.d.). Marketplace of ideas.

Marketplace of Ideas. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from

https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/999/marketplace-of-ideas

6. Social Media Statistics Details - undiscovered Maine - University of Maine. Undiscovered

Maine. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2022, from

https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/small-business/resources/marketing-for-small-business/soci

al-media-tools/social-media-statistics-details/

7. David L Sloss. Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting democracies from information warfare.

Stanford university Press, 2022.