The role of social media in the 2011 GE

Over the past few years, the use of social media has increased drastically, and more recently, it has played a big role in major events in the world. For example, in the recent protests in Egypt that resulted in the successful overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak, protesters used social networking site Facebook to coordinate gatherings and protests, and spread their ideas to others to garner support. In the General Election 2011 which was just over, social media has also played a big role.

Before the election, many candidates used social networking sites such as Facebook in order to reach out to voters, especially youths. This helps politicians to relate to their voters through day-to-day interaction, and get to know the needs and views of the ordinary "man on the street" in order to serve them better. Politicians can also have a wider audience for their opinions. This also helps citizens to feel closer to those politicians, rather than feeling fearful of them because of their authority. Getting to know their candidates' ideals and views through interaction with them also allows citizens to make an informed voting choice.

During the week of intense campaigning and rallies, social media was a vital tool for politicians to garner support. The various parties posted their manifestos, rallies and election videos on social networking sites. Politicians were able to reach out to a very wide audience of people, not just those who attended their rallies. For voters, this brought them great convenience, and they did not need to do special research on information on parties, or have to attend rallies in order to be able to make informed decisions. Voters were also able to view how campaigns in other constituencies were going, and have a better understanding of the big picture of the elections.

Social media also has taken an interesting role during polling day, as an unofficial source of news. Even before any results came out on the news, many results already started streaming in through sites such as Twitter.

Social media has also allowed us to see the diverse opinions of Singaporeans, and look at events from a different perspective as from what is usually portrayed in the mainstream media. Even now, after the elections, social media is being used to convey ideals. For example, groups have been created to encourage Mr George Yeo to run for president, and Ms Nicole Seah to be an NCMP.

Since social media is such a powerful tool, and so many different opinions can be found on the internet, I believe we should be careful before believing everything that we see on such sites. I think that we should first do our own background research and find out information from reliable sources before forming opinions, rather than just following the crowd and the hype that is in various social media.