A new era of 'social'ism has begun and that too from the land that boasts itself to have 'Capitalism Unlimited'! You guessed it, I am talking about the social networking. But you guessed it wrong that I am going to write the same routine stuff about social media that has been written over and over again. I am looking at this phenomena from a different perspective of 'Neo Socialism'. A perspective that is different from those of fun, entertainment, connectedness and hype. A perspective that considers social, economical and political aspects of the society in this era of social media.
So what is 'neo socialism'? For those of you of my age who have seen the 'bookish socialism' in India, Russia and other countries of 1960s and 1970s, it is nostalgic but I would mention about it here for the benefit of GenX and GenY who started their first grade education after collapse of Berlin wall. The socialism was poetic, dreamlike concept then. For many youngsters who committed themselves to the socialist movements, it was also romantic sometimes leading to attaining life partners! Yet, it was a cause of a burning motivation for the majority of the youth population then. Take the Che Guevera movement in Latin America or Jai Prakash Narain movement in India. The underlying theme was the same - socialism; the manifestation of the movement was the same - a large number of youth belonging to various strata of the society. The street marches, public gatherings, protests, anti establishment communiques, peaceful suffering from governing forces - yet with a modesty and self restraints in action. It was never like a raging mutiny with guns and bombs, never a ruthless revolt with heads rolling on the earth in the pool of blood. That was the socialism of the yesteryear.
The new age social media and networking is an advanced adopted version of the same socialist culture. It is quite poetic and romantic with 'likes' and 'lol's on the facebook. This leads to modern age love stories, which I heard from one of my GenY colleague. In his words:
"My roommate was very sad one day. As he was in 'virtual' love with a girlfriend, I asked him, what's wrong Romeo? He said, she has left me, she 'unfriend' me on facebook after a small argument last night over dinner."
That's the way the love messages are being conveyed. This was just for a fun part of my topic. But, look at so many communities on FB, twitter, whatsapp, wechat and their country specific siblings. There are so many passionate subjects, posts, comments, replies, likes, dislikes. And these are not limited only to trivia and general social life. Take case of Arab Spring that started from Tunisia and swept across Egypt, Libya, Syria and everywhere mid-west. Most of the mobilization of messages and thoughts happened over social media. It was impossible otherwise in the kind of regime in those countries. Some concluded that the social media campaign was orchestrated by the 'fifth columnists in the west', but same was also true when French revolution happened in which Marquis De Laffayette brought the concepts of civil war for freedom from his participation in the great American war of freedom. Consider 'Occupy Wallstreet' movement in the US and Europe. Thousands of youth in these so called developed nations got together to protest the distorted social order that was protecting the big sharks at the cost of job loss for average youth. Take the case of 'Jan Lokpal' movement of Anna Hazare et al in India in 2011-12. The entire political rank and file of the country was watching in awe the huge gathering of genuine people on the streets of New Delhi without any 'powerful' political leader doing 'yaketi-yak' speeches in front. These were the real people who took to streets not because they were poor or hungry or oppressed. There were poor class as well as higher middle class, there were illiterate as well as highly educated, there were students as well as successful business folks among them. The common theme was to let the establishment know that they understood being fooled at. And this large public gathering was happening with widely seen images from TV screens as well as unseen messages of facebook, twitter, whatsapp etc.
Hence I see a 'neo socialism' emerging with the tools of social networking media spreading through newer devices like tablets, smartphones and what not. This neo socialism is already seen breaking the walls of caste, creed, religion, economic strata thereby proving the basic tenet of socialism - Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
While on the topic I would like to share something of my own. Back in 1999, when I was in Bay Area US, due to homesickness I was desperately dreaming of getting connected with good old friends. At that time an idea had striken me to launch a public website where people could register themselves along with their past schools, colleges and employers information. This would allow easy building of alumni over internet. Had I realised this dream at that time, it could have been ' Makarand Hiralikar' in place of ' Mark Zukerburg ' .
So what is 'neo socialism'? For those of you of my age who have seen the 'bookish socialism' in India, Russia and other countries of 1960s and 1970s, it is nostalgic but I would mention about it here for the benefit of GenX and GenY who started their first grade education after collapse of Berlin wall. The socialism was poetic, dreamlike concept then. For many youngsters who committed themselves to the socialist movements, it was also romantic sometimes leading to attaining life partners! Yet, it was a cause of a burning motivation for the majority of the youth population then. Take the Che Guevera movement in Latin America or Jai Prakash Narain movement in India. The underlying theme was the same - socialism; the manifestation of the movement was the same - a large number of youth belonging to various strata of the society. The street marches, public gatherings, protests, anti establishment communiques, peaceful suffering from governing forces - yet with a modesty and self restraints in action. It was never like a raging mutiny with guns and bombs, never a ruthless revolt with heads rolling on the earth in the pool of blood. That was the socialism of the yesteryear.
The new age social media and networking is an advanced adopted version of the same socialist culture. It is quite poetic and romantic with 'likes' and 'lol's on the facebook. This leads to modern age love stories, which I heard from one of my GenY colleague. In his words:
"My roommate was very sad one day. As he was in 'virtual' love with a girlfriend, I asked him, what's wrong Romeo? He said, she has left me, she 'unfriend' me on facebook after a small argument last night over dinner."
That's the way the love messages are being conveyed. This was just for a fun part of my topic. But, look at so many communities on FB, twitter, whatsapp, wechat and their country specific siblings. There are so many passionate subjects, posts, comments, replies, likes, dislikes. And these are not limited only to trivia and general social life. Take case of Arab Spring that started from Tunisia and swept across Egypt, Libya, Syria and everywhere mid-west. Most of the mobilization of messages and thoughts happened over social media. It was impossible otherwise in the kind of regime in those countries. Some concluded that the social media campaign was orchestrated by the 'fifth columnists in the west', but same was also true when French revolution happened in which Marquis De Laffayette brought the concepts of civil war for freedom from his participation in the great American war of freedom. Consider 'Occupy Wallstreet' movement in the US and Europe. Thousands of youth in these so called developed nations got together to protest the distorted social order that was protecting the big sharks at the cost of job loss for average youth. Take the case of 'Jan Lokpal' movement of Anna Hazare et al in India in 2011-12. The entire political rank and file of the country was watching in awe the huge gathering of genuine people on the streets of New Delhi without any 'powerful' political leader doing 'yaketi-yak' speeches in front. These were the real people who took to streets not because they were poor or hungry or oppressed. There were poor class as well as higher middle class, there were illiterate as well as highly educated, there were students as well as successful business folks among them. The common theme was to let the establishment know that they understood being fooled at. And this large public gathering was happening with widely seen images from TV screens as well as unseen messages of facebook, twitter, whatsapp etc.
Hence I see a 'neo socialism' emerging with the tools of social networking media spreading through newer devices like tablets, smartphones and what not. This neo socialism is already seen breaking the walls of caste, creed, religion, economic strata thereby proving the basic tenet of socialism - Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
While on the topic I would like to share something of my own. Back in 1999, when I was in Bay Area US, due to homesickness I was desperately dreaming of getting connected with good old friends. At that time an idea had striken me to launch a public website where people could register themselves along with their past schools, colleges and employers information. This would allow easy building of alumni over internet. Had I realised this dream at that time, it could have been ' Makarand Hiralikar' in place of ' Mark Zukerburg ' .
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