Bill Thompson in his BBC article argues, quite rightly that “The next British General Election will almost certainly be called the first "real" internet election…” As we have already witnessed political usage of internet and social technologies in the US election, it is predictable that we can expect the same, if not more from our forthcoming general election.
Social technologies are perceived as tools for ‘Everyone’ to actively engage in content creation and dissemination. By facilitating and enabling users to have a voice and provide ways to share their views across time and space, consequently it has challenged the status quo, offering some innovative and alternative world views (positive and negative). The early days of social technology usage, when we said, ‘Everyone’, we were largely referring to users who were not professional photographers, journalists, commentators, programme makers etc. The internet and social technologies have helped to publish alternative political viewpoints that were not filtered through economic decision led editorials.
Now it is really for ‘EVERYONE’ (that is connected to social network) which also includes politicians. Social technologies are going to be one of many tools that politicians will fully exploit in their election campaign and the social network sites will be filled with their slogans along with the diverse and innovative thinking that are generated by general users. What we have to be wary of in the social network world is that, the masters of manipulation of public opinion are also becoming the masters of social technologies.
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