In the age of social media, sharing has been revolutionised. Everything is instant, everything can be updated. Not only is it a space in which citizens can reach out to each other on the basis of a reformed type of social interaction but it is also a platform by which companies can easily reach out to a wide audience for brand promotion.
The efficiency of and the way in which civil society functions now has now taken on a different dynamic with the ease of voicing opinions and sharing information with people on a similar wavelength. However, the question must be asked- with so many easily influenced users, how does this huge inflow of information distort our reality? And does it even matter?
Halik Azeez
Photograph by Malinthe Samarakoon
A lot of the paranoia about the current generation’s abuse of social media is rather baseless. The Internet has just given us a new way of interacting with the world that is different but also enhanced. Its positive effects aren't as visible because there is still a lot of abuse. Being on the frontiers of the evolution of the integration of society and technology, what exactly that abuse is and how to avoid it is a little hard to see, this will hopefully change as millennials grow older and have kids of their own. One of the biggest threats by far to a key benefit of the Internet that we are seeing today is the fast declining egalitarianism. The Internet isn't democratic anymore, the emergence of corporate giants that control it, massive state intervention in areas such as surveillance and the passive ignorance of the vast majority of its users to these facts is perpetuating this.
Minaali Haputantri
Instagram is hardly an accurate depiction of anyone's life, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Like most things, how Instagram and other social media affects a person has a lot to do with how they approach it. Instagram, for me, is a platform that reminds me to be grateful for the little things in life. There's hardly any negativity on my Instagram and I like it like that.
Oshada Senanayake, COO / Director Operations at Pyxle (Pvt) Ltd.
With Sri Lanka's social media reach growing exponentially and with current statistics showing over 2million users active on social channels, it has become an imperative for businesses to be active on social media. This also provides businesses the unique opportunity to take its brand presence and reach to potential clients or customers proactively. While the common perception being the utilization of social media for marketing initiatives, it has become an equally important medium for service recovery for businesses and brings to focus the concept of online reputation management which businesses are now embracing to maintain brand reputation on the online front in staying competitive with enhanced customer engagement.
Copacetic Media
Social Media gained popularity as a promotional tool during the early 2010’s in Sri Lanka. As an agency, specializing in Social Media, we have found that of the 2.8 MN active users of Social Media, many of the youth are more drawn towards shareable media, or media which is purely known as ‘Sharebait’. This has led to many organizations relying on content that they think will appeal to its audience. It ranges from images with the right font and filter to videos and many other forms of content, to reach the youth in Sri Lanka through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and the latest promotional medium Instagram. Even though we are quite used to associating the corporate entities with the use of social media as a promotional tool, in the recent past many social activist and political activities aimed at youth are carried out through Social Media. For example, social activists in Sri Lanka used social media in many situations such as, one such situation is to create awareness regarding the pollution of the Kelani River by the usage of the hashtag #NoCokeSL on Facebook and Twitter. When looking at social media’s use for Political Promotional Tool, the recent General Elections (#GenElecSL , #SLGE15, and #IVotedSL) and the Presidential Election (#PresPollSL) are few examples of social media being used for political promotional activities.
By Upeksha Hettiarachchi
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