The Silent Majority and the social media.

I was bemused when CNN Philippines (yes we have one) spent time with their "social media" correspondent, who was busy reporting that Miriam's supporters were upset and insisted someone stole the election. (I don't think so: she came in 4th in a five way race).

The problem? The social media here is full of activists, often associated with a US type agenda: No, not getting China out of the west Philippine sea, or reporting on corrupt politicians and shaming them,  but instead they are busy pushing the gay agenda and abortion, both of which are priorities of the Obama white house.

Which is why my granddaughter and her church group are busy doing their thing opposing them.

my facebook page is a civil war between the SJW focusing on the latest enemy for their two minute hate, and my relatives posting "if you love Jesus share this photo" stuff.

But do such things represent opinion, or are they just fads for those posting to feel good, because they are part of the army of "good guys" fighting injustice by tweeting/posting.

yet how meaningful are these posts? Except for hurt feelings, doing such stuff doesn't put you in much danger.

But although they represent the "cutting edge" of opinion, they might not be representative of ordinary folks.

Yes,  because although the poorest farmer has access to a cellphone, the smartphone texting is limited to the middle class high school and college kids: and gives you no information on how ordinary farmers will vote.

I suspect a similar bias in the US, although less so, and this might be why the arising of the Trumpettes was missed.

but the left are not the only ones manipulating the social media: so do activists, revolutionaries, and terrorists.

 AustinBay at StrategyPage has a long article on how the government keeps an eye on you when you are posting.

This massive, real-time combing of social media and open (to anyone) message traffic has yielded a much more accurate and timely analysis of political, religious, cultural, and military trends worldwide. It has also made the deployment of agents and other scarce resources (reconnaissance and electronic eavesdropping satellites, aircraft, and ships) more effective.

yet I would note the same problem applies to the CIA as to CNNP: it will find the activists, but might not be able to evaluate the grassroots opinion of the "silent majority", especially when they hesitate to give their opinion because of the danger of arrest, losing a job, or just plain being trolled by organized minions.

I rarely go on Facebook because of this, but keep an eye on it to keep in touch with my relatives. But my sister in law and her daughter no longer go on Facebook after her kid's skate team was badly trolled. Teenaged girls are sensitive to these things, so she just told her daughter no.