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ELITE Vol.1, Issue 32, June 2021 ﺔﻴﺑﺮ #

The Superpower of Social Media

Mary Samer , Political science, third level

Have you ever thought about the “superpower” of You will find hashtags such as :#savesheikhjarra
social media? I am not talking about its effective #GazaUnderAttack#GazaUnderFire
connection services and the fact that it connects the ,#WeStandWithGaza#FreePalastine,
North and the South and so forth. I am talking about #PalestineUnderAttack , #PalestiniansLivesMatter .
its superpower in being an effective player in the All these hashtags and more were used both on
important cases or issues either on domestic level or Facebook and Instagram to help spread the word about
on an international level. The surprising thing is that the case and get support for it. This was really very
sometimes social media plays this heroic role without helpful and the social warfare that took place between the
even having the intention to. Have you guessed what I two sides of the conflict was effective and showed that
am talking about? The role social media played in people can be very supportive of any case even from
supporting the Plastentian case. their own homes.
We have always known social media for being It is very interesting as well to know that Facebook and
powerful in spreading important news , encouraging or Instagram started removing posts of this type as they
discouraging people from a certain situation but, it is were against the American-Israeli interests and we all
relatively new to see it playing this influential role in know that these social media platforms are American
such an important case. It is not the first time , many companies.However, the social media users did not lose
cases and issues were passed through social media but hope and they started using many tricky ways to deliver
most of these events were mainly domestic , on the the content they wanted without facing the Facebook
level of Egypt only such as helping spread the news of deleting their posts.
a harassment accident to help the victim get his/her Finally, I need you to know that the social media has
rights. The new thing in this case was that the social always been and will always be very effective weapon in
media-unintentionally- supported a case that is on our lives not only in supporting a certain case but, in
opposing terms with the superpowers behind all these many other usages so, please be very wise when you use
social media platforms. it and try to make good use of it for the good of your
Take for example the hashtags that were highly community.
trending during the past couple of weeks at the peak of "The great thing about social media was how it gave a
the crises. voice to voiceless people."-Jon Ranson

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