Your Status Update won’t free Gaza but Yes, it’s important
‘Your Facebook posts are not going to help the victims, dude!’
‘Israel will back of because of your powerful status updates’
‘Munh ki firing kerne mein aaj k musalman sab se agay han’
I have seen many of such responses on Facebook posts regarding ongoing Gaza massacre. People who desperately want this issue to be settled are taking on those who are posting pictures to show solidarity with the victims. Former group thinks that latter is actually satisfied with what’s going on in Gaza and all those status updates are nothing but a way to go with the flow. In actual, they don’t feel any pain for their fellow Muslims as all these web based social updates, regardless how many times they get shared and how many likes they fetch, add up to nothing. One step ahead and even public protests are also put under this scrutiny and are regarded as fruitless as they are not enough to stop Gaza genocide.
I totally agree to this viewpoint that sharing pictures on social media, alone, is not enough to stop Israel but keeping current dynamics into perspective, labeling all the activity on social media as something not productive at all is incorrect. Pressurizing your govt. to take a serious step against Israel, whether calling off your ambassador, building international pressure, or even give threats of movement of armies; this all requires a comprehensive and composed effort. To achieve any of the listed objectives, you need to put pressure on the govt. by turning public opinion against them, and, in doing so; you should not leave any medium that can be used to spread the word and create awareness among the masses.
For obvious reasons, electronic media can’t be used as it is controlled by govt. media agencies. They may allow you to make some noise but they always have complete control over the situation, something we have recently witnessed when media channels were pushed to wall. This leaves you with option of social media, a place which gives you a chance of affecting public opinion in your way. I am not saying that with social media, you can completely turn the tables in your favor, but definitely, it is an important part of the game-changing package.
Other important aspect connected with social media is global perspective. Regarding issues like Gaza massacre, which brings outcry to whole Ummah regardless of their ethnicity and country, you can have an eye on other activities going on around the world for the same cause. You also get a feeling of being part of Ummah and this pushes you to put more effort to solve Ummah related issues.
There is a reason why Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has got an official page; had social media had no value, why organizations like IDF, CIA, and ISPR would have bothered to maintain their official pages? Why they are wasting their time, money and effort in posting pictures and updating status if it’s of no use? Just name an organization today, and I will be surprised if you tell me that they don’t have an official page on Facebook.
I re-endorse the idea of social media updates to spread awareness and efforts in this area should not be looked down upon. It should be considered as one piece of the whole puzzle of creating a public opinion. Obviously, if you start considering one piece of a puzzle as a complete one, you will definitely come up with something like that;
‘Bhai, teray Facebook updates se kuch hona hota tou ab tak 30 dafa Kashmir azaad ho chuka hota !!’