The evolution of internet took its shape in the year 1991, and got commercialized in 1996. With the acceleration of internet came the phenomenon of social networking sites.
The boom of social media has been there from almost 12 years now. It started with organizations like Friendster in 2002, MySpace in 2003 and Netlog instated in 2003; however they could not make the impact felt in India. The trend of social networking sites began with Orkut in India, which was launched in 2004. But the real cultural revolution of the social media was created by Facebook in 2004, followed by twitter in March 2006. Today Facebook boasts of 25 million Indian users. The average time spent by users on Facebook in India is 3 hrs per month; which is more than double the time spent by users on Yahoo, YouTube (1 hr 20 min) and MSN (40 min).
Since the introduction of social networking sites it has attracted millions and millions of users. The pace of its users abroad is very high as compared to India. Taking into account the statistics of facebook accounts of February 2010, USA accounted the highest with 308 million, followed by Russia with 141 million, Japan 127 million, Germany 81 million and UK with 61 million. However considering the huge number of population in India the participation in the social networking site is very meager. It did not even come in the fifth place of top five lists of highest facebook users. UK continues with a reported 24 million active users. India has a population of 1,173,108,018 out of this 100,000,000 people have active on internet usage.
Social media has been responsible in bringing many structural changes across the globe. We have witnessed social media creating huge mass frenzy in other places around the world. It has contributed in activities like crime, terrorism as well as various social causes like removing autocratic government, corruption. Many revolutions in the world have speed up due to huge contribution made by these sites.
India has a decent amount of representation in social networking sites however it has not been able to reach that height where it can create a revolution. During the Anna Hazare movement, Facebook and twitter received huge response but was not good enough to bring a drastic change. The support for Anna movements in facebook for the community 'Join Anna Hazare's Fast To Bring the Jan Lokpal Bill' is just 26,629, as against the support for Indian brand Tata Docomo which is more than Anna and stands a fan following of 3,236,541. The profile of Anna Hazare shows a likes of 184,442, which is still less than the Indian Brand Tata Dokomo. A page saying 'Are you with Anna Hazare' records only a 600 fan following. Interestingly a community named 'Join Anti Corruption Movement with Anna Hazare' has a meager 39 supporters. Another community known as 'Anna we are with you' has only a support of 1270. In twitter Anna Hazare records followers of 6, 552. With series of scams hitting the country one after the other it is high time such tools could be used to the fullest. The country is at corruption turmoil willing to collapse any moment. But the question arises if the social media can play such a role and stimulate such awareness among the masses.
Although India has not been able to capitalize well in this explosive growth of social media, many countries have witnessed an uprising due to the contribution made by these sites.
Tunisia revolution was one such uprising boasted by these sites. The role of social media in the protest movements in the Middle East to bring down the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been very substantial. Given the role played by Twitter and Facebook in the rolling series of protests that have overturned a regime it is a commendable sign in the world of social media. Tunisia is often called twitter revolution because of the extensive awareness spread through twitter.
In Egypt revolution, social media was both a spark and an accelerant for the movement. These used as tools to transmit their message to the world and galvanize international support and bring down the autocratic governa
nce of Hosni Mubarak.The evolution of internet took its shape in the year 1991, and got commercialized in 1996. With the acceleration of internet came the phenomenon of social networking sites.
Similarly the recent riots in London were a bad chapter that was further sparked by these social media tools. However in the same social tools contributed hugely to bring down the city to peace. Volunteers
used Twitter and Facebook to help mobilize hundreds of people today to clean up the mess. Using the hashtag riotcleanup and a new Twitter account, @riotcleanup, which gained more than 70,000 followers made coordinated effort that led to hundreds of people pouring into Camden, Clapham Junction, Croydon and other neighborhoods, armed with brooms, shovels, gloves and dustpans. 'It has been an incredible response,' said Dan Thompson, 57, of Worthing, Sussex, who proposed the cleanup idea on his Twitter account.
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