Social Media

It's strangely been a trend in the last couple of weeks that I've been getting into a lot of conversations about social media and why it's not as important/useful/relevant when a very large portion of our population don't have access to technology. What would a rural farmer care about Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all those social media platforms, particularly if you live in an area of rolling blackouts and limited services? So I'll take it as sign and write down my take on it.

The Philippines as a developing country has an imbalance in a lot of ways. We're known around the world as a social media capital, often driving our hashtag and trends into the world's online stage, when only a certain portion of our population is actually online. Social media is generally focused on those with capacity to own or access technology. And I do feel that how well you manipulate social media beyond updating your status message and saying hello to your friends is also dependent on how much capacity and access you have to information on manipulating social news and networks. So yes, there is a divide and it's obvious that social media is not the answer to solving deep-seated issues in our country.

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