It’s trendy to be political

Sawsan Kazak

Recently, young people have been finding it very trendy to be up-to-date with the political happenings of other countries. People have been flooding Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites with information, articles, videos and their personal opinions about political situations around the world.

Maybe the new-found interest in politics has stemmed from the recent Arab Spring, as it has shown that change can take place in a short period of time.  Maybe it’s from the fact that accessibility to information is much easier these days through the internet. Maybe it’s just the new hot thing to be aware of these days.

But like any trend, it comes quick and without thought (remember the 80s?). I have noticed a rise in posts involving dictator eradication, uprising support and democracy everywhere. People ‘support’ any cause that is at the moment the hot topic. By support, I don’t actually mean make posters and go to the streets, I mean support with catchy slogans on their profiles or swapping of videos on websites.

But supporting a cause from the comfort of your living room as you sip tea is not really support. It is easy to support an idealistic cause, but not much research is happening whether the cause is good for the people or about the aftermath if passed. Showing solidarity with others is a good thing, but just doing it to look political and ‘with-it’ is not. As much as I would love to say that all the uprisings have been successful, at this moment I simply can’t. I just wish that instead of blindly ‘supporting’ a romantic idea. There is more research done on the people behind the idea and the consequences of its application.

By Sawsan Kazak
sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

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