Will we do politics differently thanks to social media?
I'd say YES.
Social media allows new ways of direct interactions.
Not only because social media break down the physical barriers that made difficult to Mr X to hear what Mrs Y was saying and to give direct feedback that could be read by Mr Z.
More important than the technologies that allow such interactions, there is a philosophy behind social media.
And this philosophy makes it acceptable for Mrs Y to consider that the feedback received by Mr X is worthy, regardless of Mr X's position in real life. Mr Z could perhaps also throw new ideas in the plates of both Mr X & Mrs Y. etc, etc.
I believe this social media philosophy enables more transparency, more collaboration and therefore could instil a culture made of more shared responsibility in and out-side any organisation.
In my opinion, social media philosophy can bring major benefits in many spheres of both the public & private sectors.
And I am sure it will increasingly do so in the years to come.
I really like the blog post written by Heather Blanchard in which she shares her thoughts about social media, entrepreneurism and participatory government - http://bit.ly/HRgYpH
I share her conclusion. Especially the idea that "one of the best way to change how government works is by the very people who are within the bureaucracy. They just need the environment which allows for this to happen."
And you. What do you think?
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Comments
Yes politics will be
Yes politics will be different thanks to social media, but only when youngsters (our future generations) are more and more involved in it. Social media are technological enablers of transparency, immediacy and trust.
Here in the Netherlands, youngsters are still not interested in politics, not getting started that process, it will be hard to deploy social media for these purposes.
There is certainly potential
There is certainly potential for social media to provide new avenues for political participation. In order for this potential to become reality, however, lots of work will have to be done to reform government institutions. In some cases that I’ve looked at the ‘rules of engagement’ between citizens and governments regarding social media have not been worked out. For example, a local government may have a twitter feed but it is often unclear who runs it and whether suggestions or criticisms etc get fed in to any kind of transparent process. Also, some research has found that elected members are suspicious of new participatory initiatives as people are ‘anonymous’ and may not be from their area.
It’s relatively easy to create new ways for citizens to communicate with governments but if nothing happens as a result of their participation people will get disengaged very quickly and become even more disillusioned.
Furthermore, there are some concerns about privacy and the use of proprietary platforms that the most popular social media sites use.
I don’t mean to sound overly cynical- I think these technologies are powerful and could provide new ‘spaces’ for debate as other posters have suggested but we need to think carefully about this can be put into practice.
You are absolutely right
You are absolutely right Lizzy, only if the gov is social media enabled and processes get optimized based on inputs and learning we see real improvements. But on the other hand, with the democratization of influence, we all have so much more influence into what needs to happen and how it should happen that no government can ignore that.
I live in California and see the enormous progress the US society is going through in terms of more democracy and more influence.
My participation in DA12 is to a large extend to close the gap between the US and EU and help making things happen. If you help and more people we talk to help too - this will be a great evolution in our society in Europe too :)