Introduction
The internet is one of today’s most influential tool in terms of defining the power of information to establish the decision-making path among members of the society. With immediately distributed sense of urgency, information is passed on to the public within minutes which also identifies with the normal culture of reacting to the said data. At the onset of posts going viral and all, it could be understood that the internet and the cyber culture among its users have directly affected the way the Brexit issue is handled. Gone are the days when the administrators are the only ones who have a say on a specific social issue- now everyone has a say on a particular issue. Question is, is this new culture helping or is it creating more confusions than there really is?
This discussion shall focus more on what specific factors of cyberpsychology actually apply to the development of the Brexit issue. Coming from a political perspective, this discussion shall further identify what impact cyberpsychology has on the manner by which the Brexit issue is handled and identified to have a huge impact on the way people think about their government as well as to how they view the power they have in terms of guiding the administration in coming up with decisions that are not only acceptable but is also considered practical for everyone concerned.
What is Cyberpsychology
Psychology is basically the study of the human mind and behavior. In cyberpsychology, such context of learning applied to the utilization of the internet is considered. Accordingly, cyberpsychology hopes to open up different forms of analysis that would basically cover how the human mind responds to the different factors of technology and the way these factors affect their daily lives. In this discussion, the context of cyberpsychology shall be identified based on how much influence it has especially when `it comes to redefining the manner by which the world views the overall context of the Brexit movement.
Social media and internet forums formed by concerned citizens has the largest contribution to the redirection of the rules and regulations identified through the implementation of Brexit. The announcement of UK withdrawal from the European Union created a huge impact on how the people, not only from UK but from all around the globe, reacted on the said motion (Newman, 2013). This created a whole new view on how the political standing of UK is going to affect the people of the nation and created a sense of commotion that called for a definitive manner of responding to the pressures that the international connections of the country would likely develop (Peers, 2016).
How does the internet affect this particular motion? The world was all eyes to the decision that UK administrators are going to make. To add up to the commotion, the flow of comments and assumptions flooded the internet with definite identification on how Brexit would affect the entire trade and political systems in the field of international diplomacy between UK and all the other nations within the EU agreement.
The Internet and Governance
In a world of transparency and the applicable note on social responsibility, people are compelled to share their opinions especially on matters that they believe has the largest impact on them and their lifestyle. Brexit is not only a motion that will affect the UK politics, it shall also create a huge impact on the lives of the people. This it the reason why the EU Referendum or also known as the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum was identified to have an impacting effect on the manner by which people openly shared their opinions and ideas about the situation. David Cameron, the one who spearheaded the referendum, promised to renegotiate that membership of UK in EU (Oliver, 2018).
However, although there were individuals who wanted to stay within the protection of the EU agreement, there were those who understood the possibilities of operating on autonomy. A lot of people in UK believed that it is about time for the country to break free from the control and limitations that the EU agreement establishes in the nation (Clarke, et al, 2017). Looking into larger possibilities of growth, it seems that many among members of the UK community are ready to get out of the nation’s comfort zone and make economic and political advancements outside the control and guidance of the greater EU.
Somehow, David Cameron’s goal of putting the decision in the hands of the people through general voting has acted upon against him and his own personal goals of gaining votes against Brexit. Instead of wanting to continue the country’s membership with EU, more are specifically invested in getting out of it. In the goal and strategy of David Cameron, he wanted to apply the concept of Vox Populi, which basically highlights the allowable context by which the voice of the people are heard (Culkin, et al, 2018).
In a way, it is a common notion in social development that there is a huge gap between politics and the people that is built through time. It can be assumed that when it comes to this, the concept of camaraderie that is supposed to be established between the administrators and the people they ought to guide is specifically reconstructed by the separation of values that is recognized by the parties involved. In the concept of Vox Populi, reconstructing such separation and bridging the gap through giving the members of the society the chance to voice out their thoughts and share their opinions takes a critical impact on how the government establishes its position and connects with the people to create a more efficient form of social growth (Culkin, et al, 2018).
During the onset of the internet’s familiarity with the process of bridging the gap between nations and boundaries, it has also been opened to being used as the connecting tool between the government and the people in order to set a form of communication between parties involved. Gone are the days when politics was merely for the administrators- the years of total authority is long gone- the application of the gratification of social demands is now the primary course of rule that administrators tend to adhere to (Victoria, et al, 2019). Through the years of experience, it has been realized that the administrative capacity to rule and create peaceful changes in the society could only be achieved through hearing out what the population has to say. The application of Vox Populi then creates a huge impact on how the context of social inquiry is applied in the field of modern politics.
The Brexit Issue and Diplomacy
Diplomacy basically identifies with the process of how a country connects with other international allies. Through effective communication strategies and established agreements on different causes and advocacies, diplomacy leads members international associations to come to a central agreement that would be most acceptable to them in reaching their goals for their country and for international causes as well (Whittle, 1997). The Brexit motion was a critical move on the part of UK administrators as it shall change the platform of leadership in the country which for a long time was very dependent on how the EU agreements designed the manner by which allies are supposed to operate as unified political units.
As diplomacy is placed at the center stage of the movement, those who proposed Brexit were strong to impose on the information campaign that they used in order to let the public know about the benefits of UK’s exit from EU. The utilization of the internet not merely as a portal of information but a distinct source of influence became the strongest capacity of the pro-Brexit groups as they hold on strongly unto the context of gaining freedom from EU rules and controls. Transparency is also part of diplomacy and to make sure that they are giving the public a chance to decide for themselves, campaigners of Pro Brexit movement held on to such culture of transparency (Clarke, et al, 2017). They do not only outline the benefits of the motion, but also that of the possible risks that this decision might make. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that for every risk, they cite specific possibilities by which such conditions could be resolved, therefore creating a better distinction on how the benefits of the motion outweigh possible problems that it may create.
Cyberpsychology and the Brexit Results
The behavior of those who used the internet to make it easier for the people to decide was evidently effective in terms of measuring the people’s understanding and realization of the real value of Brexit. Accordingly, this attitudinal reformation in the ways by which people defined their role in the field of administrational development has been largely aided by influential power of the internet (Culkin, et al, 2018). The changing value of the internet is specifically affecting the whole concept of social awakening and social realization. In reality, this changed manner of utilizing the internet for the benefit of the society basically readjusted the way the people engaged with socially definitive issues such as Brexit.
Cyberpsychology explains that many individuals now believe the that the influence the internet has on the thinking process of humans have created a new sense of realization- one that basically gives a huge impact how humans become distinctively invested in their thoughts and the way they share their opinion to the world (Wallace, 1998). In the case of Brexit, different social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were among the platforms that specifically garnered much attention during the Brexit motion and social referendum.
The UK community was divided for quite some time during the Brexit motion. The remain camp versus the leave camp takes a distinctively different take on how this motion ought to be given attention to. During the first 30 days of the campaign, the said platforms identified what specific factors were important to the people (Culkin, et al, 2018). With high rate of active users in these platforms, there was a close rate of difference in terms of separating the reaction of those who supported Brexit apart from those who did not want to support it.
The leave camp uses this data to reach out to more individuals through increasing their efforts on the development of new and improved set of content that are designed to capture and educate the people about Brexit. In these different forms of content, they tried to use different strategies in order to reach out to the people and basically convince them, telling them that Brexit is the best way to go- that it is the best option available if UK is looking into further growth in the future. Nevertheless, the most effective type of content that was easily spread and distributed across these different forms of social media platforms are messages that were emotionally charged.
Emotional messages about Brexit were usually short, but they are strong enough to get the attention of the readers and motivate them to react and share the said phrases (Victoria, et al, 2019). The repetitive manner by which these messages are sent out creates a ripple effect [to the point that even though those who may not have any idea what Brexit is, begin thinking and seemingly also join the campaign by sharing the said messages]. As the campaigns of the leave camp are starting to flood the internet, it cannot be denied that even with others who may not be complete interested about the matter at first develop a distinct inkling to the subject because of being regularly bombarded by the issue. During the height of the issue being discussed in news media, the flow of information being posted on social media walls and notifications seem to create a mind-boggling condition for regular users (Wallace, 1998). This mind- stirring strategy made it easier for those who campaigned pro-Brexit to get that opportunity to practically turn the attention of the undecided ones to another point of decision- leading them to agree that Brexit is indeed agreeable or at least a better option than the other.
It is critical to note at this point that the application of cyberpsychology in analyzing the situation does help in explaining how the Leave camp got staggering high votes compared to the other side of the argument. The leave camp or the pro-Brexit group knew how to use the internet and the social media platforms to their advantage through studying the behavior of online users. There are three things to consider in analyzing the situation. One is the point of influence. As mentioned earlier, as the issue started, not everyone knew about what Brexit was nor how it would affect the lifestyle of the people in UK. What the pro-Brexit groups did was to increase interest among readers through creating compelling content that would turn the heads of the people around- hence influencing them to agree on the matter. Two, utilizing emotionally charged messages motivated the users to immediately share the information through their accounts. Three, individuals who may not know about Brexit could be easily swayed through a flood of information that consistently disturbs their wall- making such decisions an easy pro-Brexit response.
Conclusion
There is a certain behavior that is developed among users of the internet that is now being taken advantage of by advertisers and politics as well as other institutions that intend to use information to gain public acceptance and response. Efficiently using internet-based tools that intend to improve content and the way these contents would get the attention of the readers is expected to create a huge impact on how developments could be achieved in getting positive responses from frequent social media users. With the effective utilization of social media strategies, more are given the capacity to face a distinct form of control and influence which in this case includes the development of social diplomacy among people as they tackle more serious issues such as Brexit.
References
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