Social media has changed the political game, allowing incumbents and newcomers alike to speak directly to voters on everything from their own vs opponents parties’ policies. Almost all Indian political leaders have taken up social media, predominantly Facebook and Twitter, to express themselves without the filtering by conventional media.

      Politicians have also chosen social media in an attempt to reach voters inhabiting the new media society in a more efficient manner. The 2008 U.S. presidential election was the first election to fully grasp the power and reach of the SNS to impact voters. The U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign used Facebook in an exceptional way to reach out to young voters. It proved to be successful; allowing him to win the votes of nearly 70% of voters that were under 25 years old. During the anti-corruption movement in 2012, social activist Anna Hazare used social media to connect people in New Delhi.

• Pros:
  • Planning Manifestos:
    • Digital strategies have become increasingly important in the planning of political rallies and party manifestos in recent years.
    • And so far, anyone wanting to read the sentiment of the people, the pre-election survey has been replaced by a tweet survey.
  • Influence Public Opinion:
    • Social media helps the political parties in influencing the opinion of undecided voters, in giving the apathetic middle class a reason to go and vote.
    • It also helps in garnering the support base to vote in large numbers and influencing others to vote.
  • Disseminating Information:
    • Politicians areincreasingly adopting the new social media for campaigning, disseminating or retrieving information, or contributing to rational and critical debate.
  • Addressing People Problems:
    • Social media makes it easy for people to stay up to date on upcoming events, party schedules, and election agendas.
    • Assign a tech-savvy candidate to manage social media and use it to reach out to people and hear their concerns.
  • Cons:
    • Polarisation:
      • Social media has become an instrument for politicians that is utilized to create more noise and even is made a way to promote polarization.
    • Growing Misrepresentation:
      • Social media is greatly utilized to blame and criticize the opposition partiesand the information is misrepresented by misleading and incorrect facts.
      • The number of political minorities is growing, and they are using social media to create a political logjam.
    • Influence Voters Opinion:
      • Social media presence and advertising requires a lot of spending. Only affluent parties can spend that much and they can influence the majority of the voter base.
      • During elections, the spread of fake news on Social Media Platforms influences the people''s preferences.

          As per the latest survey by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, it was known that there are about 20 crore internet users in India and there are more than 18 crores mobile/cell phone internet users in India, most of them being within the age group of 18-35 years. There are around 10 crore voters voting for the first time who are within the age of 18-23 years. Thus, social media plays a very crucial role in opinion formation among people during elections. The use of social media for political activities influences peoples’ political efficacy, political participation and political knowledge. The political parties use these social media pages to connect with the people and update them about their welfare activities, and also to compete with their rival parties. Social media is also helping in bringing out a new way through which people can share information, search and increase their awareness. It is hence creating more awareness about the election, development of the nation and various other issues among people in both urban as well as rural areas. Thus, having a very meaningful as well as a positive impact as it is increasing the voting percentage during elections.