The recent social media frenzy about the planned burning of the Koran is a lesson in how easy it is for us to become manipulated. The web has been alight with news of this crazy stunt and there have been thousands of blog entries, millions of online comments, and many people in social media have discussed little else for about a week. The crazy thing is that there are often examples of Koran burning already available in social media. In fact a quick search of YouTube will provide many clips of this holy book being burnt – so what is happening here. Why is this barmy ‘man of God’ even being given a platform?
It sometimes feels like most of the social media world is easy to exploit. You just press the right buttons and we are off. It is easy to see how this could be used by people to exploit us and have us do their dirty work. If there had been something more interesting happening in the news we probably wouldn’t have even heard of this lunatic yet now he has become a household name around the world – in fact he is probably already more famous than the Beatles. I bet those other crazies who went to the trouble of burning the Koran on putting it on YouTube are fuming – why haven’t they been giving the celebrity treatment as well?
The social media world has turned this unhinged man with his fifty followers into a celebrity. The ranks of his little cult are sure to grow as people are always attracted to celebrity. After all, some of the most powerful people on the planet have mentioned him by name – what a power trip. All this is likely to encourage other would be nutcases to also try and make a name for themselves in the social media world by doing similar things.
Subscribe to our blog to receive new posts and updates by Email
