"For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction, plus a social media overreaction," says the latest law of Newton (formulated by social media, of course). Social media is no longer the means to just interact with friends. It's the source of breaking news, it's the place to hold debates, it's the platform to register your protest, it's the stage to celebrate with the world. And as the world turns to social media, India is not lagging behind. In fact, we Indians are giving full evidence of our exuberance on various social media channels.
Twitter especially saw the rise of India in a big way in 2015. Not just common users, but even political leaders and political parties turned to social media to manipulate their vote banks. The highlights of Twitter use by India also included the arrival of Taj Mahal on Twitter. Yes, the world famous monument now has its own Twitter handle @Tajmahal. Also, Make In India, one of the largest economic initiatives by Indian government became the first non US brand to get its own emoji.
Let's see what else became the highlight of India's Twitter use.
The Golden Tweet of 2015:Believe it or not, the Golden Tweet of 2015 came from India. And this superstar tweet was tweeted by none other than our very own superstar Shar Rukh Khan (@iamsrk). In April 2015, Shah Rukh Khan tweeted a selfie with the Zayn Malik (@zaynmalik), the British boyband One Direction's former member. The selfie which was clicked at the Asian Awards in London was retweeted 141,000 times and viewed nearly 18.3 million times globally.
Twitter started Twitter Moments this year. And the Most Popular Twitter Moments in India were:
- Cricket World Cup: There were various events that took the Twitter by storm. Among these, the top tweeted event in India was Cricket World Cup, especially the first match #INDvsPAK of #CWC15 that was played on 15th Feb, 2015. As India won, the Indian Twittarati rose up in storm. Moreover, various reports and videos of the event that were tweeted got 118.3 million impressions. Another highlight was the #OnlyOnTwitter moment that saw Sachin Tendulkar (@Sachin_rt) tweeting after the win.
- Delhi Elections: Delhi Legislative Assembly Election were fought on 10th February. As political parties took to Twitter in a major way to promote themselves, users were not far behind in debating their merits and demerits on Twitter. Over 10.8 million election related tweets were posted and hastags like #DelhiElections and #DelhiVotes became a rage.
- Diwali: Diwali is our favoruite festival and it was celebrated in a big way by us on Twitter as well. Twitter made the event even more special for Indians by releasing the first ever Diwali emoji. Twitter also invited people to send photos of their favourite Diwali moments with the hashtag #HappyDiwali.
- Chennai Rains: India does not just celebrate or fight on Twitter. We also use it to extend help. Twitter users in India united to extend help during 1st to 4th December. Local citizens especially posted more than 1.4 million tweets using hashtags #ChennaiRains, #ChennaiFloods, #ChennaiRainsHelp to seek assistance and help each other.
- Independence Day: Indians around the world tweeted in a big way to celebrate India's 69th Independence Day. Twitter marked the grand day by launching #SaluteSelfie campaign that saw 100,000 tweets of gratitude towards Indian armed forces. Twitter also launched the Indian tricolour Moji to celebrate the day.
The above were the events that saw most tweets by Indians in 2015. The popular hashtags in India were remarkable as they reflected our love for cricket, Bollywood and our Prime Minister Shree Narendra Modi.
- #IPL: We showed our love for this grand festival of cricket by posting over 9 million #IPL tweets this year.
- #SelfiewithDaughter: Even as the shameful incidents of rape and women abuse continued, India rose up to support in a grand way the #SelfiewithDaughter campaign started by Prime Minister Modi. Over 375,000 tweets were posted for #SelfiewithDaughter.
- #BiharResults: We showed our interest in politics by posting over 260,000 #BiharResults tweets on Bihar election day.
- #SaalEkShuruaatAnek: This hashtag celebrated Shree Narendra Modi's first year as PM. Twitter saw 179,000 #SaalEkShuruaatAnek Tweets in 2015.
- #DDLJ20Years: As our beloved movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaenge completed 20 years in December 2015, we celebrated DDLJ's birthday by 140,000 #DDLJ20Years Tweets.
2015 saw several more of India's favoruites to join Twitter. As has already mentioned, Taj Mahal (@TajMahal) joined Twitter. Other new and interesting Twitter accounts include Kapil Dev (@therealkapildev), Tamil movie star, TV presenter and philanthropist Suriya (@Suriya_offl), Delhi Police Commissioner (@BhimBassi), Safe City India (@Safecityindia).
The above mentioned are some of the new accounts created on Twitter. Let's now see whom we showered with most love on Twitter. Here's a list of top ten Twitter accounts ranked according to the number of their followers:
- Amitabh Bachchan @SrBachchan - 18.1M followers
- Shah Rukh Khan @iamsrk, 16.5M followers
- Narendra Modi @narendramodi, 16.4M followers
- Aamir Khan @aamir_khan, 15.5M followers
- Salman Khan @BeingSalmanKhan, 15M followers
- Deepika Padukone @deepikapadukone, 12.3M followers
- Hrithik Roshan @iHrithik, 11.9M followers
- Priyanka Chopra @priyankachopra, 11.8M followers
- Akshay Kumar @akshaykumar, 10.6M followers
-
A.R.Rahman @arrahman, 9.5M followers
The above list clearly shows that we love our Bollywood stars, no matter what their religion and no matter how much hype gets created about our supposed #intolerance. No matter what anybody says or does, no matter how much propaganda is created, we love our stars.
And also, while we are not too fond of any politician, Narendra Modi has managed to win some favour. He is the only politician in the top ten list of most followed Indians on Twitter. And he is sitting pretty comfortably at number 3.
While I have talked so much about Twitter, let me also tell you one little thing. There's another Twitter account I'd love you to take note of. And that's mine. Do connect with me at @Jy0tiAr0ra !
