If Gandhiji had a Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin account......

The world is becoming smaller day by day, more so during the nights. When I say smaller, I don’t mean it in terms of the available land resource, I mean it in terms of communication and information processing. It has become so easy for a person located somewhere at the north pole to share or communicate something with some one breathing in the latitudes and longitudes of the south pole. And all the credit goes to the field of Social Media which acquired the world by a storm in just a span of few countable years. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+, Skype etc have changed the way in which people throughout the world used to communicate, work and share.

The previous night I spent traveling via Indian railways power brand named “Charminar Express” and was accompanied by a brilliant work of Mr. Ramchandra Guha titled “INDIA AFTER GANDHI”. Flipping through the starting few pages of the book, I was attracted by the brilliant and extraordinary thinking of Gandhi portrayed exquisitely by Mr. Guha. Few thoughts started drilling my mind after I completed the first chapter of the book. Without having any proper communication tools as we have today like Facebook, twitter, Pinterest etc; how did Gandhi ji managed to run one of the biggest campaign the world ever witnessed – QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT?. How would it be if Gandhiji and his peers had access to the Social Media tools?

In the month of January 1930,Mahatma Gandhi set out how to observe the day (Purna Swaraj demonstrations) circulated via his journal 'Young India' and other newspapers being published in that era.. The Mahatma said “If the declaration of Independence is made by whole villages, whole cities; it would be well if all the meetings were held at identical timings throughout out the country”. A request to the country by the Father of Nation through the medium of newspaper and journal which took long hours to be printed in those days... Imagine in the given situation Gandhi Ji had a laptop and access to Social Media, then the outcome could have been 100 times more than what happened and quick. Gandhi Ji was best at his Marketing of Brand named INDIA and INDIANNESS. My point here is not to say that I regret not having such a tool in those days. I just wanted to convey the power of Social Media. If without any Social Media Gandhi Ji could unite the whole nation against the British Raj, what kind of wonders we can do with the brahmastra of modern era called Social Media...

We keep celebrating a victory of Indian cricket team in some series, the 100 crore crossing of Bollywood movies, the rise of a African American President over the Social Media tools with great happiness and pride. How would it have been if in those days people had a chance of celebrating the Happiness and Pride of receiving Independence on such tools.

The motto of this post today is not to compare and illustrate you all about how the world would be then and how it is now. The only thing I want to convey is You have got power in form of Social Media, use it optimaly. And remember, as a dialogue in Spiderman series says “With great power comes great responsibility”. It is applicable to the power of Social Media too.

The Power is in tips of your fingers. Use it to the best you can.

SOCIAL MEDIA – A POWER TO YOU..

Regards,
Rohit Tiwari