Mastering social networks to gather and educate the youth

Fanpage named "Association of people who hate the reactionary"

PANO - Last week, commenting on the draft documents of the 10^th National Congress of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Nguyen Quang Thong, Deputy Chairman of Vietnam Youth Federation, said that there are about 5.43 million Vietnamese people, most of them from 18 to 34 years old, who use Facebook.

Using social networks has become a real need for the youth, but social networks develop spontaneously, lack direction, and the danger of “Peaceful Evolution” among the youth is high.

Carl Marx once said the “weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons”. It is time the struggle against “Peaceful Evolution” on the Internet, gathered progressive and pioneering forces to unite and give direction to the youth.

Spontaneous flare

Nearly 50,000 people like and nearly 10,000 people talk about posts on the fanpage named “Association of people who hate the reactionary” in two years since the page was opened. This page attracts a large number of young people with articles written in the language of the youth and illustrated by interesting pictures to expose the tricks of the reactionary forces.

The page touches on many hot issues and its high interactivity helps denounce the distorted arguments of the reactionary forces and the websites that are against the Party and State. Except for some negative comments, in general, this page has many useful things for the youth. However, who opened this page and whether the page is reliable is hard to ascertain because it does not belong to any organization.

Another story, which gets more attention, is taking place on another social page. While the Vietnam Communist Party is enhancing the implementation of the 4^th Party Central Committee Plenum’s Resolution on “Some urgent issues on current Party building work”, some bad websites voice negative viewpoints saying this effort is just a drop in the ocean, confusing the youth. In contrast, another website of the youth reposted the article “Reading the self-criticism paper in the past, thinking about the self-criticism of the Party members at present”, published by the Communist Review.

The six-page self-criticism paper was written in a regular criticism by Nguyen Sinh Chung, former Head of Information and Propaganda Department in Quang Binh.

“Once, I was lightly wounded, and I decided to move my department to a mountainous area,” Chung recalled in his paper. Then, he criticized himself: “That is fear of death, injury and the enemy. I didn’t think of the people who were fighting against the enemy under bombardment.”

Chung also wrote about many of his own mistakes that he wished he wouldn’t have made.

His paper drew the attention of thousands of readers when it was posted on the Internet, getting their understanding and making them better believe in the Party building work, if the Party keeps observing seriously the way it consolidates itself. This proves that social networks help distribute articles broader and faster than traditional publishing outlets.

Another Facebook page, named the group of those who love the colour of the country, gathers nearly 3,000 fans after being set up for more than one year. The page calls on its members to change their own pages into the red colour during anniversaries or festivals to show their love for the country.

All these activities are very easy to do. It is a pity that organizations of the youth have not yet done anything on this important ideological front. Not many youth unions use the Internet and social networks as means to gather young people and organize revolutionary movements.

Potential risks

Meanwhile, the hostile forces are fast in luring the youth via social networks. A recent seminar showed that taking use of the youth, the hostile forces always try to lure young people to serve as “detonators” or “driving forces” in their sabotage actions against the regime. Since 2007, through websites, relevant agencies have exposed dozens of cases in which students were incited to join demonstrations.

When lacking useful channels to gather and educate young people, the Internet is full of websites that cannot be said to be good or bad, and can make the youth “get lost” on the Internet. There are websites bearing the names of fighting against reactionary forces, but their contents are reactionary and distort the guidelines and policies of the Party and State. There are websites pretending to advocate patriotism, but in fact trying to incite revenge.

Discussing this, many people say that the recent youth movements lack interactivity with young people via modern devices. The Internet is a virtual environment, if ignored or left without guidance, the youth may follow virtual values and diverge from reality.

Opening bright ways

The ability of social networks in attracting the youth cannot be denied. It is not easy to gather the youth, so the Internet can be seen as a double-edged blade.

Technology development always creates new devices and communities on the Internet. Several years ago, the fashion of opening blogs attracted many young people, but now Facebook is a leading trend.

A survey by a Vietnamese website on the use of Facebook recently attracted more than 13,000 people within a single week. This shows the large number of young people using Facebook in Vietnam. Therefore, together with managing social networks and reducing their negative aspects, it is necessary to know how to live with them, making use of their good points in gathering the youth.

It is high time youth organizations opened more channels to gather the youth officially on the Internet. Recently, there have been many recommendations to increase the interactivity of the youth on the Internet. Mai Son, Secretary of Bac Giang Province’s Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, said that there have been numerous interesting and useful websites that drew the attention of people living and working around the nation to the province. He said that from the forums on these websites, many useful campaigns were launched in real life to help the people in the province.

President Ho Chi Minh said that a living example was more valuable than thousands of propaganda speeches; this is true in gathering the youth on the Internet in general, and fighting against “Peaceful Evolution” on the Internet in particular. It is necessary to establish and select outstanding organizations and individuals that help navigate, share, guide and educate the youth through social networks to increase the youth unions’ educational activities for young people in a friendly way.

Annually, we organize contests to learn more about Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh ideology and establish many useful clubs. Surely, these activities and clubs can be organized on the Internet. Especially, the clubs and leading activities initiated by youth organizations to fight against wrong and reactionary viewpoints can attract more participation from the youth.

Another necessary thing is to make a strategy to support made-in-Vietnam social networks. In 2009, ZingMe declared that it developed into the most popular social network in Vietnam. However, since 2011, it has been left behind by Facebook in the country.

Pham Hung Phong, General Director of VietNet, said that it is necessary to link Vietnam’s social networks with official activities of social organizations. When the youth use their domestic social networks, it will be easier to prevent bad factors and handle those who plan to implement “Peaceful Evolution”.

Mr. Phong also warned that if some of Vietnam’s social networks are bought by foreigners, the “pitiful gaps” can be widened.

Written by Nguyen Van Minh

Translated by Ngoc Hung