Hey you! Get your filthy hands off my social media!

When I worked in a small country town - it happened to be the town I grew up in - my office was just two doors away from the region's federal MP's office.  I encountered him regularly over 12 months and each time he said, "Oh, hello, nice to meet you, do you work locally?" Hhhmmm. 

He would invariably shake my hand on those occasions too.  Those hands.  Not standard small country town hands.  These hands had never dug a trench, never played footy, never chopped wood.  They were soft and neat, slightly limp and ridiculously clean.  Despite his best politicianny efforts, his handshake turned into a flaccid, tepid tangle in my grasp that left me feeling a bit icky each time.  I would have to tell myself that at least it wasn't one of those male-to-female business handshakes that include a strange tickle on my palm from the guy's middle finger while he looks me straight in the eye.  WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?????

The point I am getting to is that there are probably plenty of politicians, as well as the general public, that are happy that the digital age of politicking has arrived.  Less handshaking for a good deal more interaction. 

Politicians have websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts and upload to Youtube among other things.  This gives politicians and the public a chance to make instant contact and receive instant responses to their queries and comments.  Interestingly though, Philip Seib (2012) makes the succinct observation that 'a fundamental incompatability exists between speed and diplomacy'.  He notes that speedy reactions to trends coming from social media are not always handled wisely and so from a political and diplomatic standpoint, there is room for error and, it follows, room for disapproval.  Perhaps the users of social media will be more forgiving of politicians' missteps in their desire to be more entertained than informed, as modern politics evolves?  Or are we already too forgiving??  I get the feeling that a large percentage of us prefer to get a good laugh or gossip from our pollies rather than participate in the democratic process of running the nation.

It appears to me, as a member of a particular demographic, that broadly accessible political news and analysis is still mostly derived from traditional means and news sources (Young, S, 2010), albeit in a different, electronic format.  However, I have no doubt that politicians of the future and their constituents will be facing a very different political canvas to what we use today, given the influence of social media. 

As I pause to reflect and remember those unwelcome handshakes, I stretch my unfeasibly large and calloused peat-diggers - hands too big and overworked for a lady, and the antithesis of that MP's.  I feel like I am not alone when I give the (enormous) thumbs up to electronic communication because, really, the less body contact with politicians the better.



(And yes, I have jumped on the 'Nek minnit' phenomenon - for some inconceivable reason I find it hilarious)



References:

Seib, P, 2012, Real Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era, Palgrove Macmillan, Basingstoke

Young, S, 2010, How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press

Image source: Author unknown, The germaphobe, viewed 14 January 2013, http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/10/024777.htm