General Elections - 2014 was essentially a ‘tech election’, which had the cyberspace awash with poll jargon.
Twitter and Facebook were bursting at the seams with active trends posted by young and tech-savvy citizens, prompting inspiring political conversations.
On the one hand, it is exciting to see people keep pace with technology. But, on the other, social media has a dark side, and it did surface when people used it against adversaries. The result: social networking sites are replete with poll-related jokes, posters and blackened profile pictures along with sarcastic expressions.
And, some are not just bad but downright ‘ugly’. The users literally let it out - vitriol, bigotry and barbs.
Morphing came into play big time. A scene from superstar Rajanikanth’s Robot was depicted with morphed faces of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh where the former directs the latter: “Dismantle yourself Chitti”.
Closer home, the image of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy with a begging bowl in one hand and the other holding his kid sister Sharmila, crossed the realm of humour. Scores of other images showing Sonia and Rahul in poor light dotted cyberspace.
‘Don’t hurt’“Healthy humour is always welcome. It irks me to find educated people using derogatory language. You may be entitled to a view, but it should not hurt others. This tendency should go,” says Sameera Sepuri, a final year student of engineering.
“Why is Rahul grinning like a fool? He has no sense of occasion, apart from other kinds of good sense that he lacks,” a Twitter user wrote.
Question of freedom“I wonder sometimes if social media has given us too much of a place to hide to voice the thoughts we’d otherwise not have the courage to say,” says Anirudh, a budding chartered accountant.
Immature and personal attacks abound.
“Politics is a tough game, and leaders are playing it hard, but that does not entitle us to heap personal attacks on them,” says H.S. Seetharam, a businessman. His friend V. Ravindhra chips in: “It is tempting to chide foul-mouthed politicians and ask them to act more decent. But, in the process, if we turn crude and offend civilised sensibilities, what purpose it serves?”
