Social media users tackle public issues with humour

AMMAN — Addressing important issues with a sense of humour is more salable than facts and figures on social media, according to experts.

Following the announcement of the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination’s (Tawjihi) results, Jordanians started circulating jokes about students who succeeded or failed on online platforms.

One of the Facebook posts read: “Congratulations to Abu Mohammad, whose twin sons scored 92 per cent collectively, 46 per cent each.”

Another post by a university student congratulated those who did not make it, as that would save them from going to university and facing his own difficulties: “Congratulations to those who failed and hard luck to the successful, from university students.”     

Social media are a reflection of the society’s reality and it allows the public to participate by commenting on public issues, regardless of their social backgrounds and education levels, anthropologist Kamal Merza told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

Social media reactions are not made by professionals or academics, but by the public, and are generally spontaneous, emotional or sometimes “irrational”, according to Merza.

Using humour to react to public events is not a new phenomenon, the anthropologist noted, explaining that humour has been used to deliver messages, “swifter and on larger scales”, even before social
media existed.

However, the web has given more freedom to people in choosing subjects to discuss, more chances to break social barriers and more opportunities to include social segments that used to be silent, the expert said.

“The only criteria for success on social media is the number of likes and comments, not the opinion of specialised people,” Merza added.

‘This is what the public wants, regardless of how appropriate or significant the issue is,” he said, adding that such humourous posts gain more publicity than the opinions of experts.

Humour makes it easier for the public to talk about taboos, said Merza, who added that humour is used in two ways; comedy and mockery.

“With social media, every fact of life is unfortunately subject to people’s argumentation,” the expert concluded.

Social media have provided a “personal media pulpit” for individuals, which should not be taken seriously, but rather as entertaining material, anthropologist Ahmad Abu Khaleel said. 

“There is a lack of studies on this phenomenon, and all that we have now are the impressions of experts,” stressed Khaleel.

He said that this phenomenon has always existed, but that social media have provided an opportunity to spread opinions in a wider manner.

It is not only happening in Jordan, but in the entire world, as people seek simplicity to ease the pressure of life, he added.