Do you (as a member of RG) think that social media tools (Facebook, twitter, etc.) have positive impact on participative citizenship?
Well, it's an interesting and focused yes or no question, with a much more mixed and complex answer. First of all, social media tools are social, so they do not have the sorts of "wisdom" suggested by the theory of crowds. Instead, you have social exchange and communication that sometimes results in (structural) wisdom, and sometimes not. Personally, I think that social media follows Bourdieu's version of social capital in the sense that most social arrangements end up with "royal families" meaning broadly that the few end up representing the many. This is a natural part of social interaction, though and not always merely because a small group wants to own power, but instead because it's too hard to spend your time following everyone. That said, there is hope because with social media it is very possible for new voices to find themselves in the royal family positions over time. It's sort of like the question about whether society is better served by market freedom or government control. It all depends on the strength of the institutions there to guide interactions, and adapt to those times when social media causes us to lose our collective minds. If those things are weak (think of netiquette, algorithms etc.) then the participative citizenship will be weak whether it is online or offline.
I believe that the development of social media portals may contribute to many positive social aspects in, for example, the dissemination of information about socially important social problems as a new form of social campaigns carried out through viral marketing with the key participation of Internet users.
In addition, social media perfectly fit in, correlate with the development of the information society. In addition, social media portals support:
- development of participative, civic society,
- dissemination of consumer information, i.e. strengthen highly competitive market structures by enabling consumers to quickly and cheaply share experience with using newly purchased products and services,
- development of spontaneously organized movements and social enterprises,
- creating informal organizations referring to clusters, associations, associations for various social campaigns created and run by users of social media portals, i.e. non-formalized organizations with a flattened organizational structure.
In line with the above, the development of social media portals generates new, large opportunities for the development of information society, civic society, well-informed consumers and informed, socially organized citizens. In this regard, social media portals generate great potential for the development of civic society, so much potential that even governments of some countries are afraid of it and try to impose censorship on certain content on the Internet. Writing this previous sentence, I am referring only to countries with political systems organized as specific forms of dictatorship and full media control, but also some countries considered free in terms of freedom of speech, freedom of the media, etc.
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