Digital Patriotism

Gone are the days when soldiers used to engage in a combat to protect the motherland by proving their supremacy in power, strength, strategy and patriotism. Uninstalling mobile application, de-rating Official Facebook pages and trending hash tags, are the new age war tactics by ‘Social Media Warriors’ or the Digital Patriots.

In the past few months, we have come across an interesting social behaviour where Netizens participate in a social media war. Similar to a nation having three forms of defense i.e.; Army, Navy and Air Force; Netizens have it in the form of Facebook, Twitter and Google play store. In fact, ‘Angel Priya’ has replaced the ‘Guerrilla warfare technique’.

Digital patriots are night owls, whose patriotism boils up after finishing off their everyday chores. They peek into others’ life for dessert. These warriors suddenly start feeling bad about everything in the world. They poke in their nose to criticize all the policies without any logic. Apparently, lack of logic could be attributed to the fact from the memory lane, when these patriots used to participate in speech competition thinking it to be a debate competition. In fact, after 8 November 2016, only these patriots claimed that ‘demonetization failed, because they could easily get their money washed through banks’. Liking patriotic posts, putting tricolour frames on DPs on Independence Day and Republic day are few other traits.

Digital patriots easily get offended when a celebrity feels insecure in the country but they are okay stalking a girl to an extent of virtually raping her. They even get offended when a news channel breaks brutal truth on any state. They might come together based on religion, language, state or country. Internet warriors use internet to harass and threaten people, and stretch the freedom of speech to its limits.

Social media plays a crucial role in creating or destroying a brand. They help an organization in creating perception about a product. Hence, these patriots can hit the target in a big way. Many big organizations have faced the heat of this mob mentality. Be it Snapdeal, India’s well-known e-commerce site for having Amir Khan as its brand ambassador, or few months old media start-up Republic TV, and so on. However, one thing in common to both Snapdeal and Republic TV was patriotism.

Nevertheless, a few special characters pretend to be neutral. We call them ‘seculars’. Seculars may be spotted sharing posts on social media in which, ‘a Hindu is depicted helping a Muslim or vice versa’ while keeping a considerable balance between Saffron and Green. 

Digital patriots feel like warriors of their own personal causes, left behind by offline society, yet sure that they have all the right answers. Online platforms are their favourite tools to express the opinions that others might find objectionable in a language that often offends. I would reserve my opinion on the similarity between their offline and online behaviour.

                                                                                    Signing off:-Mr  R.K. Narnoli