Some of the best websites for free non-mainstream media (like Indymedia.ie) have lost readers to sites like Facebook. While Facebook can connect you and let you post (theoretically) to large numbers of people, note that fewer people may see it than you think. Also, in order to get change done, we have to engage with people who do not already agree with us. Facebook filters can actually lead us into more closed circles with people who agree with us. And while I do agree that blogs and Facebook can be useful for activism, never forget that we must do more than be keyboard warriors, and get out there in the real world with real people.
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Facebook and other online tools can be useful, if used correctly.
In my opinion, nothing beats talking to people on the street. Few of us have the time in this busy world, so we try to use free online tools, in an attempt to mimic the mass communications power of the
bought-and-paid for commercial media.
One of the best examples of how this was done is Indymedia, and some of you may be familiar with the Indymedia Ireland website indymedia.ie . On Indymedia, you can post your own stories without the need to go through the mainstream press. Indymedia was a great source of information on what was really happening at Shannon Airport and broke some exclusives of national importance. Indeed quite a few journalists were avid readers of the site.
It is still a very good site in relation to topics like Fracking or the Corrib Gas scandal, but it is not as busy as it used to be, mainly because people have flocked to newer sources of information, entertainment or distraction, chiefly Facebook, but also the numerous discussion boards like politics.ie. (mostly populated by cranks)
Another very useful site is Contact.ie, whereby we can select a range of options to send e-mails to all TDs, or all Senators, or all MEPS with a click of a button. I think more people should use this site, and we should be more active in letting these "representatives" know what we think.
Very few of them will actually respond, but it is sometimes interesting to read the responses, and at a minimum, when the campaign moves forward, you will be able to say 'we did contact you about this some time back' and prove it. But remember, writing a letter should only be the first formality in campaigning.
Facebook's huge audience.
It's true, that if we took the 500 million users of Facebook to be its 'population', it would be the third most popular nation on the planet.
But you don't get to reach all of them. In fact, you don't even get to reach all your 'facebook friends' sometimes.
Facebook is a business which helps connect advertisers to potential customers through advertising.
And while it can help to 'connect people' online, you should remember that if you have dozens of friends and pages 'liked' you will get a huge 'firehose' of new posts in your news feed.
Facebook handles this for you by filtering it based on whose posts you usually 'like' or comment on. This is similar to the way in which they target ads that appear on your screen, based on what you clicked on previously.
It's important to remember this filtering system if you want to use Facebook as a means of communicating and organising.
As Facebook's algorithms track more and more of your 'like' and 'share' patterns, it shows you more posts that it thinks fit your assumed preferences and, while it's good that you may find more interesting posts, you also see fewer posts that Facebook thinks don't match your profile.
So, imagine one of your friends who posts stuff every day, whether it's jokes or news or petitions on things you agree on. His post is very likely to show up on your newsfeed, even its a rehash of something you both already know and agree on.
Imagine another friend who is not on Facebook every day, but when she posts, she posts something very original and interesting. You are one of her 150 friends. She may imagine that 150 people will see this post, but she'd be wrong. If it doesn't match the criteria that Facebook has automatically applied to your filters, it probably won't show up at all. And of course, the same applies for the things you post.
The downsides of the filter can be three-fold.
a) we think Facebook has more 'reach' for us than it really does, and
b) we can end up finding only people and posts who already agree with our point of view.
c) some users are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of heavy headlines one after another and are distracted from actually doing something effective about them.
By the way, this can even happen with topics that do interest you, if the title of the topic is negative.
E.g. Woman stoned to death in Tehran.
You may be interested, you may click and read, but you may feel uncomfortable clicking "like" as you don't like people being killed by stoning.
It's also true that some people aren't that familiar with facebooks ranking system, which puts different values on clicking to read a post or link, or clicking "like" or "share".
They may read, agree, but don't "like", or they may "like", but don't "share", and that post you spent ages writing, doesn't 'go viral' the way you thought it would.
You can remedy this to a degree, by cross posting and e-mailing links, but be very careful that you're not spending increasing amounts of time tracking joining dozens of groups and cross posting the latest bit of news to each of them. You might find by the time you've done the rounds, the first post has already been shoved down the page on one of the busier walls. Use common sense, and don't spend too much time at the computer in one go. It's bad for you physically (lack of movement), psychologically (mental stress combined with lack of physical movement, and also long exposure to the artificial light affects the level of hormones in the brain, especially using computers at night.) and spiritually, it can feel like pushing a rock up a hill and 'nobody is paying attention'.
All off this must be backed up with real human interaction otherwise the politicians will imply hire more people to read their mail, and moderate their facebook pages, thus playing along with the illusion of democratic input, and giving us a place to vent our anger - mostly ineffectively. Although I must admit that posting challenging comments or links on the Fine Gael and Labour wall does give me some pleasure in that their supporters will get to read something to counter the propaganda - at least until I'm banished or my posts stop showing up on the feed.
While it can seem like more of an effort to engage with people offline, at least you have the opportunities of meeting a more diverse cross section of society, or at the very least, the diversity is defined by where you are, rather than by a piece of software trying to match you with things it calculates already fit into a neat little category.
Talking to bus drivers, passengers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers tends to happen one at a time, but it is a more natural human way of contact, and I find that the chances of getting them to engage you in constructive discussion are fairly decent, if you know your facts, have a good opening line or gimmick, and have good interpersonal skills (assuming they haven't degraded from spending too much time online!).
Getting them engaged in the topic is the first step... after that, it comes down to having an answer to the question 'You're right, but what are we going to do about it?'.
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