How Does Facebook and Twitter Affect Social Interaction

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Today, we live in a world that is more interconnected than ever before. The invention of the internet, cellphones, and computers have almost made everyone and everything within the reach of our fingertips. With the evolution of communications technology, methods of political participation and civic engagement have also changed to adapt to this advance made by mankind. Before, our choice was limited to holding demonstrations, going out to the streets, and protesting in order for our voices to be heard. Consequently, we had no choice but to resort to lobbying and writing letters to politicians for our concerns to be known. In the present time, communication among people has been made easier with the aid of technology. Cellphones and computers are used as a medium to send information, no matter how far, in an instant. These technological advancements have made it easier to send a message to family and friends, create new links in a social network, and express one’s opinion about anything under the sun.
With the growing popularity of the internet and social media websites, people have utilized these as new channels to express their thoughts on different political issues. Formally, social media is defined by Merriam-Webster as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content”. Through these actions done online like signing petitions, sharing news links, joining groups, and commenting about contemporary issues, people have taken civic engagement off the streets and on to social media.
Unlike in the time of the Greeks, where people need to gather in the agora to talk about political and societal issues; now, one only needs a gadget and in...

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...Comparative Politics, 2nd Ed. Daniele Caramani. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rappler. 2012. “5 Filipinos open a Facebook account per minute”. Rappler, March 16. http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/2609-5-filipinos-open-a-facebook-account-per-minute
Shirky, Clay. January/February 2011. The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media (accessed March 15, 2014)
Universal McCann. 2008. Power to the People Social Media Tracker: Wave 3. http://universalmccann.bitecp.com/wave_3.pdf. (accessed March 16, 2014)
Vaccari, Cristina. 2013. “Social Media and Political Communications: A survey of Twitter users during the 2013 Italian general election.” Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica 43 (3). https://files.nyu.edu/jat7/public/2013_IPSR.pdf

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