Social media is one of the technological advancements that have made a great contribution to the process of globalization. Social media in this case refers to the likes of Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Badoo and many others, with many more being developed on a daily basis. Through this, people are now able to communicate across continents hence increasing the rate at which information is transmitted, though at times it is distorted.
According to Laurie’s article, How social Media has changed us “social media has galvanized thousands over politics, create as many industries as it has destroyed, and offered an abundance of visual and audio entertainment” (para. 1).
Besides this, social media has also contributed greatly to the development of international politics by increasing the knowledge of politics in different parts of the world and encouraging more young people to participate in politics.
Since the invention of social media, knowledge base especially in relation to international politics has increased. Politics is a topic that interests people from all walks of life since it directly affects the affairs of all nations. This explains why political conflicts usually cause a lot of damage and literally bring all the activities to stop.
Social media has led to the development of international politics since it is now possible to know what is happening in other countries within a short period. Since the development of social media, there is nothing like political secrets since they all leak out at one point (Shirkey, 2011).
As a result of this, political leaders have to exercise caution in what they do or say as it may be used against them in the international community. This explains the decreasing cases of dictatorial leaderships, with the ones which were there before being overthrown through the intervention of the international community.
Besides increasing knowledge, social media also encourages people to participate in politics. Previously, politics was considered to be a thing for the old people but social media has created an interest of the same among young people. It is used as a platform to discuss issues arising in the world of politics.
Laurie supports this by stating that “a look at twitter’s recent impact on the Iran elections, the Orange revolution in Ukraine, and even the election of Barack Obama brings out the fact that more and more young people are getting involved in politics and developing the feeling that they can make a difference” (para. 9).
This explains the rise of young political aspirants who launch their campaigns in the social networks and using it as a platform to provide their policies to the supporters. People also use this platform to condemn wrong actions by the political leaders since they know that such information will reach the whole world.
As a conclusion it is clear that the social media has played a big role in the development of international politics. More people are able to participate in politics and the media has also turned to this platform as a way of spreading news. Breaking news from one part of the world gets to the other parts in a matter of seconds and this increases the pace of intervention when needed.
Before the introduction of social media, many nations especially in the sub-Saharan Africa were under dictatorial leadership and the respective media had been silenced on this. Unlike the other forms of media such as newspapers and televisions, social media can be used by anyone and the person behind the information can remain discrete (Frommer and Ortiz, 2012).
This means that it has become difficult to control political information leaking out to the international community and so many countries are now being ruled by democracy. From this, social media is credited for the advancements being witnessed in the world of international politics.
Works Cited
Frommer, Dan and Ortiz Jen. “The future of social media is…” Business Insider, 2011. Web..
Laurie Mike. “How social media has changed us” Mashable social media, 2010. Web..
Shirkey, Clay. “Political power of social media” Foreign affairs, 2011. Web.