The Facebook Influence

“Hey, did you check out that post on Karachitips?”

“Yo! Did you see that comic I shared on Facebook yesterday?”

We have all heard and said similar phrases almost every day. Social networking and video sharing websites have made entertainment and knowledge just a click away from the average user.

Facebook (FB) pages like Karachitips, Kachee Goliyan, Karway Laddu, Ministry of Lol Affairs, Sarcasmistan, Mango People and many others have become extremely common.

These pages have targeted important issues (both political and social) by using different tactics from satire to dark comedy in order to effectively get the message across to their audience(s). Since most of the content uploaded is inspired by real life events, the message is always easily passed forward to the intended audience – whether at home or abroad.

Most of these are quite relatable to the young audience and in turn act as thought provoking material. One of the biggest examples of the influence such pages have over young minds is the effectiveness with which they supported, encouraged and motivated the general population to participate and use their right to vote in order to bring a change into the country.

Did nobody wonder how there was such a huge turn out this May?

Another recent trend that has come about on Facebook pages the promotion of literature. Page owners promote prose and literary writings by posting experts from novels, poetry, or just one liners that the youngsters write on their own.

The language is not only relegated to English; but also promotes Urdu for the average visitor.

One of the most popular trends is photos of these experts that are typed up on typewriters. One of the first local pages that started this trend was known as “The Typewriter.”

The response this page received was tremendous, with requests made to type experts from so many sources whether they were English classical novels or poetry from famous Urdu poets, along with others.

Other pages promoting literary art include “The Mad Typist” and “Poets & Lunatics” along with “Writers Write”, and many others.

This correspondent asked different profiles of page users regarding their perception of the influence such pages wield over their audience(s).

According to Faiza, a university student, “These pages have an influence on the youngsters. However, I believe that the youth more often takes (the FB pages) as an entertainment read rather than seriously pondering on the real message; they never think they are the actual recipients of the message(s).”

Hina, another FB user, was more forthcoming: “I feel these (FB pages) are actually making a difference at an individual level. Their sarcasm and irony helps with realization of issues within our own selves as well as in the society in general. I do avoid doing the things which these pages mock because they are often true.”

Such Youth Orientated pages are doing a marvelous job in creating awareness regarding social and political issues via comics and satirical take on current issues.

However, since the phenomena of “You understand what you want to” is very applicable here, we cannot blame the owners of such pages to offend or express their point of view.

If even one person’s life is changed for the better after coming to a FB page, the influence of social networks will have been justified.

And you – do you think these pages influence you?