DESPITE the generally slow Internet connection and only half of its population having access to the World Wide Web, the Philippines has been tagged as a social media haven by digital experts.
Filipinos are adoptive to new technologies. According to a survey by Wave 7, Filipinos are the most social people online. The poll found that Filipinos spend 53 hours socializing in a week, 11 hours more than the global average of 42 hours.
This was made apparent when Makati City was named the “selfiest” city in the world in 2014. According to research by Time Magazine, Makati City registered an average of 258 selfies or self-portrait photographs per 100,000 people over the course of seven days. Other Philippine cities also made the top 100 list, including Cebu City (9), Quezon City (59) at Iloilo City (72).
In lieu of its 10th anniversary, popular social media application Twitter named five of the most significant world record achievements set by its users. The phenomenal love team of Alden Richards and Maine “Yaya Dub Mendoza,” more popularly known as “AlDub” from “Eat Bulaga!” made the list and was cited by the Guiness World Records. “#AlDubEBTamangPanahon,” was as “The Most used hashtag in 24 hours on Twitter” with 40,706,392 uses from October 24-25, 2015.
With the onset of the Philippine national elections, social media is expected to play a major role in taking the country’s electoral process to another level. In an era when the Filipinos’ time and attention are increasingly invested toward various social media platforms, political aspirants are now using the Internet to mobilize people to vote for them.
While the correlation between social media and the election has yet to be determined, the impact of social media has surely motivated politicians to become more creative in their campaign tactics to capture the attention of the voting public effectively.
Based on online popularity in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is at the top among presidential aspirants with 3,205,407 (Facebook) and 2,094,618 (Twitter) followers.
Vice President Jejomar Binay is second with 1,802,535 (Facebook) and 271,111 (Twitter) followers. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is third with 1,176,664 (Facebook) and 13,230 (Twitter) followers. Former Interior Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II is fourth with 1,138,162 (Facebook) and 547,449 (Twitter) followers.
Ironically, Senator Grace Poe, who is consistently leading in the surveys, is at the last place with 737,711 (Facebook) and 58,154 (Twitter) followers.
While these numbers are small compared to the 54.4 million registered voters for the May elections, through social media, politicians are able to reach a wider set of audience with just a click away.
“What will define if the candidate will win or not is the message the candidate has for the campaign. Social media is a channel that will allow them to reach more people, to mobilize their fans and volunteers to be able to act,” Carlo Ople, Managing Partner and Director of digital advertising agency DM9 Digit said.
For Cristina Montiel, a political psychologist, honesty is the best way for the candidates to win the hearts of the voters. She also added that the effectiveness and reach of the message of the candidate would determine whether the message or a candidate’s propaganda would go viral.
“Honesty is the best policy in social media. When you address issues that’s when people will understand where you are coming from.” Montiel said.
Regardless of who wins the most likes, or who becomes the most trending, social media is not only a welcome development to the country’s traditional politics. It offers politicians, and the civically engaged citizens with a virtual arena to easily and conveniently establish a rapport that is beneficial to the country’s democratic process. (AJPress)
