Alarming developments around the 'secrets' on social media
Updated: 2013-05-16 05:02
By Jony Lam(HK Edition)
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My readers may think of me as a Facebook enthusiast. The truth is, I spend less time in front of a computer reading my Facebook's news feed than a lot of other young people in Hong Kong. However, I understand social-media platforms in general to be the most important public spaces not only for the so-called post-80s, but also for many other social sectors.
Social media performs for us the functions that the Pnyx performed for ancient Greece. The Pnyx was a bowl-shaped, open-air theatre, a ten-minute walk from the city's central square, where Athenians held the Assembly to debate and decide on the city's actions. While in today's world social media has yet to develop institutions for formal and binding collective decisions, it is a place for deliberation of social issues and mobilization for collective political actions that political parties and governments ignore at their peril.
As the population of Hong Kong is limited, the number of local users in social-media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram never goes past a tipping point, and we are left with Facebook as the one and only genuinely representative public space.
Knowing what people post, share and comment on Facebook is crucial for both commercial and political marketing. One such channel worth mentioning is the "Hongkongers' Secret" page, which was founded on May 1 and attracted more than 12,000 followers within a week.
The proliferation of "secret" pages is a recent phenomenon. Coming out of nowhere like mushrooms after a rainstorm, hundreds of high schools and universities now have unofficial Facebook "secret pages" dedicated to sharing anonymous admissions. Originating from outside Hong Kong, probably in the United States, these pages are akin to secret-sharing platform PostSecret, where users can divulge anything without fear of recognition.
"Secrets" confessed range in topic from schoolwork ("Like this post if you hate DSE (Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education)") to personal love lives ("I saw this cute girl during maths, I just couldn't focus on exam after that. I'm now afraid I will fail"). Commentators often serve as a support system, offering advice and resources for students battling depression or self-image issues.
Using free online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, participants don't have to share their real identity on Facebook. Page administrators don't know the confessor's name either, only their secret. People who set up the pages, however, must use their real names under Facebook policy, but can conceal their identity when managing posts.
While some people can benefit from the therapeutic sense of community the "secret pages" provide, the re-anonymization of the otherwise "real name" Facebook also serves as an open forum for more crude, harsh commentary.
The "Hongkongers' Secret" page is an offshoot of these high schools and universities "secret pages," but with a twist. Instead of secrets, the focus has turned to the subject - the Hongkongers. There have never been a lot of mind-boggling secrets to share in the first place, and the so-called secrets posted are usually trivial, or nothing secretive at all, but every post serves one common function: the reinforcement and affirmation of the so-called "Hongkonger identity".
Protected by anonymity, what these "Hongkongers" dare not say out loud before can now be shared as "secrets". These secrets are nothing but "I am on the MTR and there are these tourists from the mainland who are making such loud noises," or "we shouldn't be donating to the Sichuan earthquake as things happening to them Chinese has nothing to do with us Hongkongers."
Pathetic as they are, these utterances, the multiplication of these channels and the public tolerance (and hence naturalization) of these thoughts are all alarming developments.
As I have illustrated repeatedly before from different angles, cross-border conflicts have now defined not only the politics in Hong Kong, but also its cultural and social domains. "Hongkongers' Secret" is but one of many examples where the dominant discourse can appropriate innocent forms and reshape them after its image.
The forces forging a "Hongkonger identity" and instilling it with a specific content are strong. They are also becoming increasingly difficult to fight as this identity begins to take shape. If this fight is lost, the stake involved could be huge for society.
The author is a social media consultant.
(HK Edition 05/16/2013 page9)