Social media, one of the most exciting developments of this century, as given rise to a class of people that didn’t exist before – influencers. It’s not easy to become one. It is no joke to become a Youtuber or Instagrammer with substantial following. It requires years of relentless hard work in terms of making content, whether in the field of fashion, makeup, travel or tech.
However, there are short cuts to accelerate reach, follower growth and other engagement metrics used to measure influencer success. There’s virtue signaling. Find out something clearly unjust happening in the world. Jump on the bandwagon and post. Even though you have nothing to do with that issue. Russia invades Ukraine? Cool, put up a Ukraine flag. Write a few lines about solidarity, peace and love. ‘Black Lives Matters’ is trending? Go post on it! You get the idea. For the most part, virtue signaling is harmless, even if somewhat fake and annoying.
However, there is another, potent, more effective, short-cut tool to build social media engagement – being a polarizer! Polarizers are the people on social media who pick on a sensitive issue and post polarizing stuff on it. They often know, someone will get hurt and someone will love it – causing emotional cues in every direction and driving up engagement. Engagement is what social media companies reward, irrespective of whether the engagement was good or bad for society. Hence, polarizing works.
Polarizing comes at various levels. There’s the cute baby polarizing topics. Is Crypto good or bad? Android or iOS? Dussheri or Alphonso? Baby polarizers can be fun, don’t cross the ethical line and help influencers build reach too. So far so good.
However, there are two, big, gorilla polarizing topics. These are religion and politics. Being a polarizer for these two topics isn’t for the faint hearted. Ethical lines are crossed. Negative emotions will be generated – hate, anger and hurt.
If it’s religion – one community will be offended at the expense of the other. If it’s politics – one party will be pitched as better and superior, the other one will be painted as evil and inferior.
Of course, the most potent polarizers mix the two topics – religion and politics. Say something provocative, set your social media on metaphorical fire, make your engagement statistics hit the roof and for a while feel like you rule the internet. The social media stardom high from such polarizing can be intense. A few audacious statements can make you trend. Compare that to slow and long years of hard work required for making videos on unboxing tech equipment, makeup tutorials or for cooking recipes. Boring, isn’t it?
Except you play with fire. Such polarizing is not easy. You never know when you cross the line. Like the now-suspended BJP spokesperson did, who probably was just doing yet another TV debate, unaware that her brazen remarks will cause an international crisis. She is not the only polarizer strategy user on Indian social media.
We have plenty more on Indian twitter. Many of them have verified blue ticks and great educational degrees. They are smart. They understand the world and aren’t as emotional as they portray themselves to be. Yet, they play the ‘polarize to rise’ game all day long.
In this silly game of clout, these polarizers cross ethical lines and spoil society’s atmosphere. By constantly bringing out Hindu-Muslim issues and differences, they keep India on the edge. They (as in both sides of polarizers) literally hunt and scavenge news items that suit their narrative. They embellish it with more provocative words and share it on their feeds, hoping to drive engagement. In a country of 1.4billion people, there’s bound to be a handful of incidents every week. These polarizers sniff for them, bring them out and try to keep them in discussion all day long. TV channels have joined the polarizer game, hoping for the same reach benefits, even if it spoils our society. It’s the world we live in now. Polarisers dominate public opinion, drowning out every sane voice.
But as recent events have shown, the polarizer can go too far. Nupur Sharma, who was not only a social media star, but also a TV panelist and national spokesperson for the ruling party. Polarizing works on social media, where responsibility and accountability is low. However, when you go too far as a ruling party spokesperson, it can create all sorts of problems. The condemnation from Islamic countries, many of whom are India’s friends and employ millions of Indians, was embarrassing to say the least. India is an upcoming power. We cannot afford to and shouldn’t offend other countries. We need their support, investments and co-operation. In that sense, it is perfectly understandable why the ruling party acted fast and suspended the spokesperson. Fortunately, the offended countries put the matter to rest soon, letting it go and acknowledging the governments actions in removing the spokesperson. Unfortunately though, many extreme polarizers on the other side are now trying to keep the issue alive. There are protests and violent threats, unsettling the peace of this wonderful, diverse country. India, as a free country with a legal system, must do what it takes to protect the spokesperson. However, all of us also must take lessons. We cannot ignore the harmful effects on society from these polarizers. India is not full of hatemongers or people who think in terms of Hindu-Muslim all the time. We need to consciously stop reacting to and engaging with the polarizers. They spoil the atmosphere in our society. They even spoil India’s image and opportunities abroad. Polarizers themselves must be careful and draw ethical boundaries too. For being an influence is one thing, being a ‘good influence’ is quite another. Let’s move on from this issue now, but let’s also take the lessons and change going forward.