The debate has always been acknowledged as the best way to extract a solution for a problem. However, every generation has had different ways to articulate their point of view. In today’s time, nothing is better than social media when it comes to talking about different aspects of the world. No one can deny that the social media has opened up the doors to global communication and continues to offer itself as the best platform for discourse. Here are a few ways, social media has given rise to civil discourse:
1. Easy to Use
The first and most concrete benefit of social media is, it is easy to use and provides an equal opportunity to every person, regardless of their gender, to come and open up about their views. The major barrier in healthy and civil discourse was that people from different groups and areas were unable to be connected to the same medium. Social media has removed this barrier significantly by making it extremely simple to use for people belonging to different backgrounds.
All you need to do is to have accounts on social apps and remain active with the participants over there. This way, you can interact with anyone you want all around the globe at any time about any topic. Talk about eliminating distances and barriers of space of time – social media has done it for you.
2. Keeps You Discreet
Not to forget, social media brings its dangers along with the pros. You can easily be hounded and chased by negative people for your views. However, the most amazing benefit of social media is, it allows participants to keep their identity discreet while articulating everything they want.
It means that you can hide your true identity if you don’t want to expose yourself but still want to generate discourse on a particular issue. It is important to choose anonymity because as much as you want to believe otherwise, online bullying on social media is a very real thing. And it can disturb the peace of your mind. So, choose anonymity and talk about the issues that you think must come to the highlight.
3. Intercultural Diversity
The ethos behind any kind of discourse is to welcome different views. Thankfully, social media is used by more than 4 billion people across the globe, which means that you can easily welcome ideas from all across the globe. Luckily, a lot of people can easily voice their opinions without worrying about repercussions.
Above all, it has helped people to be more acceptable towards contradictory views. Although it is still long way to go when one can say that social media has made people more compassionate and accepting, it is playing a major part in doing so. And, on one day, not too long from now, people will become even more tolerant and accepting and learn to understand that difference of opinions doesn’t mean that you start to hate each other.
4. Breaking Stereotypes
The number of stereotypes has been broken by only two decades of use of social media is greater than the total number of the entire century. It is because now you don’t have to go out on the streets to spread awareness about a certain issue. Instead, you can just run an online campaign effectively to see visible and effective results.
Sure, it has the potential to be abused and spread negativity and hate. But, thankful to most social media platforms that have algorithms to filter out such content. They also give you an option to report something that may not be appropriate or might offend a certain group of people.
5. Freedom of Expression
Freedom of expression has always been hot debate in the philosophical history of mankind. Oppressive states all around the world discourage freedom of expression and use all the available tools of oppression against those who dare to speak about something that they are not allowed to speak.
Social media platforms have to be nothing but a blessing for those people who have no other way to let the world know about what is happening with them. Therefore, it is safe to say that social media has not only played its part in generating civil discourse on a mega level, but it has also revolutionized the freedom of expression.
6. Keeps You Updated
Gone are days when you have to rely on paper or electronic media for the news. Now, you can see what’s happening all around the world and what’s the latest discourse on it with the help of a single click. It is important because conventional media is always biased and chained with government policies and regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to have a medium that is unbiased and gives a detailed look at the other side of the story as well. And, social media does just the trick.
