Twitter, tweets, tweeps, tweeting, twitterview, tweet-a-thon etc. The coinage from one word initially used to define "chirps from birds" is endless. Twitter enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".
When Jack Dorsey (@jack), who started Twitter in March, 2006 along with co-founders Evan Williams (@ev) and Biz Stone (@biz), rolled out the initial framework that have come to establish the social networking site which currently has over 500 million registered users, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day, little did they know that it will become the success it is today.
How did they come up with the name? Report had it that they stumbled upon the word "twitter" in the course of searching around an initial proposed name "twitch". Twitter is defined as "a short burst of inconsequential information," and that is how the name came to be. A lot of messages can be seen as completely meaningless, but it's entirely dependent on the recipient and probably the recipient's mood.
This now brings us back to the big discussion for the day, "Tweeting my Electoral Franchise." Franchise is a right conferred or established by a government, such as the right to vote (exercise one's franchise) in a local or national election. This certainly means that for desired change to occur in governance especially by elected officials, individuals need to embrace this right to vote.
In the just concluded FCT Council elections held on 16th March, 2013, I was privileged to join an INEC accredited foreign Observation team to monitor the conduct of the election. My job description specifically required me to share real time field information on social media specifically twitter. This saw me use the approved hashtag #FCTdecides to effectively engage the Twitter Space. In the course of going from one Area Council to the other, one pattern continuously played out, The number of individuals that came out to exercise their franchise was numerous in the rural parts of FCT. The exact opposite was the case in the urban parts, specifically Abuja Municipal Area Council. On the other hand, the engagement, dialogue and conversation on Twitter were admirable especially amongst youths who live and work in this Area Council. They were vigorously on social media updating folks with bits of information gotten from traditional media sources albeit sitting in the comfort of their homes.
One would ask: are the technology empowered young urban folks tweeting away their franchise? Or are they just having fun? Are the social media giants more interested in communicating how desired change can come instead of rolling up their sleeves, sweating it out under the famous Abuja sun and ensuring that their right to vote is fully explored? Are the rural dwellers who have limited access or knowledge of social media the actual change agents? Are the politicians who come under heavy criticism for lack luster performance being shown that it is all white noise? After all, it is the ballot box that decides who get elected or re-elected as the case may be and not the twitter box.
Who are the influential young people? Are they the one with huge online influence that can shape online discussions that end online but with zero offline impact? Are they the ones with zero online influence but ample offline influence that can communicate concrete change especially at their ward level?
Twitter is now firmly woven into the fabric of political lives and advocacy. It is also part of our personal and religious life at times. This is a development that cannot be ignored. The lessons from #OccupyNigeria and #FuelSubsidy are worthy of note as these cause did not communicate and effect the desired outcomes on the platform of Twitter alone. The "ICE" chain of Inspire| Connect| Empower was fully explored:
• Inspire folks to take action by arousing their interest in the causes.
• Connect folks to possible activities they can do to ensure change.
• Empower folks to act and move beyond the social media space.
If every young person is interested in being the Twitter champion of their time, by being the first to break news on election conduct, without getting, joining the queue and exercising their franchise, how will desired change come?
It is pertinent to note that social media itself is significant but it is not necessary a tool for change when employed alone. Individuals will still have to take offline actions, register to vote; exercise their franchise by actual voting etc. Social media can be a tool to keep one informed and help inform others as it connects people to resources easily and provides a two-way communication platform.
The greatest impact of Twitter is keeping one informed, real time but the greatest challenge lies with being too comfortable in the desire to voice change and becoming complacent in the concrete definition of the change that one desires. Let us all embrace the ICE slogan and contribute to our tomorrow's leadership framework what we wish that yesterday had contributed to our today.
