The EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE 2023 ELECTIONS: FLASHLIGHT ON TWITTER

Since the creation of the internet, the world has gradually become a global village. The advent of digital media like social media sites makes this village even smaller. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp have evolved the manner in which information is shared as they are now the main means of disseminating information. The unique features these social media sites come with, make them really popular and it seems almost everyone with a smart phone has at least one social media account. The most popular of them seems to be Twitter, as it has little restrictions unlike the others. We live in a very fast-paced world nowadays and people can’t be bothered to spend a lot of time reading blogs or full-length news articles. Thus, the birth of microblogging—allowing people to share their thoughts or information in 280 characters. Twitter has the effect of giving people the feeling of being neighbours in a virtual street. Everyone and anyone with an account is accessible. Twitter encourages a high level of interaction with people all over the world even without any form of personal relationship. You don't have to know a person directly or be on their friends' list to have an interaction with their content. One could literally be in Nigeria have people in America interacting with their content. Although on social media, ordinary people can speak to anyone, even those in power without fear or favour but it goes a notch further on Twitter. Tweeps as Twitter users are called enjoy some form of identity protection as they can use pseudonyms as account names if they wish. Ordinary people have dared to call out, insult and even expose president's, politicians in general and large organisations and gone unscathed as these tweeps are largely untraceable. A lot of companies use Twitter to provide instant customer support. It provides faster communication lines than traditional support via phone. Twitter’s popularity as the go-to source of real-time news worldwide is the top reason why people visit the social networking site. It’s a popular outlet to report breaking news. Traditional marketing is not enough these days to maintain brand visibility in line with the business' target audience. Social media platforms play a huge role when it comes to promoting products and connecting with customers. Twitter remains a popular social media platform for marketers. All of this contributes to it's huge popularity and this is supported by the statistics. It is said that Twitter has some 330 million active users (MAU) based on its last reported data that leveraged this metric in the 1st quarter of 2019. As of 2020, Twitter’s monetizable daily active users (mDAU) stands at 166 million, which represents a 24% growth from 2019. Meanwhile, in the US alone, Twitter has 69.3 million active users as of January 2021. In Nigeria, Twitters popularity and usefulness was put to the test when it was used to organise the famous EndSars protest of 2020. That protest was one unlike the country has ever witnessed before, as the protest was coordinated in the 36 States of the federation and the FCT basically on Twitter. Dates, venues, safety tips, warnings and all were all passed on Twitter. Nigerians defied odds, disregarded ethno-religious sentiments and banded together to protest bad governance and oppression. It is that same energy that many Nigerians are bringing into the 2023 elections and have been using social media platforms especially Twitter, to campaign for their respective candidates. One candidate's popularity seems to visibly soar above that of others and many people, probably out of concern or rather fear keep pointing out that it's just social media hype. They say the supporters of Peter Obi are only on social media and not "on ground". To this, I reply, are the owners of these accounts not real people? Mr. Obi's supporters are touted to only be on social media, yet you find photos and videos of those running campaigns for him from their offices, homes, on the streets and in the markets, sensitising others on the need to register for and get their PVCs. Social media support is unreal and only virtual, yet other candidates seem to be making extra effort to have a social media presence. It is being rumoured that a certain candidate has recruited a number of influencers to help boost his popularity while undermining that of his opponents. Whatever anyone says, it is obvious that social media is the real deal and the candidates are doing everything to court the attention of the Nigerians online and improve their ratings as this would have a huge effect on the elections.

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