Every now and then, social media produces a ‘hero’. He/she suddenly rises, lingers and then either fades away or falls off by the wayside. All this can happen within days, weeks, months or within a few years.
The appeal of such ‘heroes’ can be universal or entirely local. But the fact remains, their heroic status is almost always short-lived. People move on to search for another hero.
But it is not really about a search as such. It is mostly about construction. According to the University of Richmond (Virginia) Professor Emeritus of Psychology Scott T. Allison, heroism is a concept shaped by social, psychological and historical factors. It is a process that is influenced by our individual biases, and our collective needs and values. So, on most occasions, heroes are constructed by people to broadcast their own ideals, wishes, beliefs and aspirations.
A society, or segments of it, take fragments of information available of an event or of a personality and turn them into a “meaningful whole.” That meaningful whole is the hero. He/she is constructed from information and narratives that only support the beliefs of the constructors.
Not too long ago, hundreds of men and women in Pakistan perceived the terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh as a ‘hero’. His personal life was often shrouded in mystery and so was the modus operandi through which he planned his acts of terror — especially the manner in which he organised the kidnapping and killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
In the age of social media, ‘heroes’ rise and fall in the blink of an eye. From terrorists to influencers, from activists to politicians — societies routinely construct, romanticise and discard their chosen symbols of virtue and rebellion
Some segments of Pakistani society who were opposed to the contemporary politics of the country, and were anti-US, bridged the gaps between the fragments of information available on Sheikh with narratives that supported their beliefs. The ‘whole’ in this case became a man who was narrated as a “true Muslim” and “courageous”.
Then, when Sheikh was arrested and thrown in jail, the narrative that shaped him as a hero began to include an otherworldly dimension to his constructed persona. It was claimed by the constructors that, every time Sheikh stood up to say his prayers in his cell, a bright white light from above engulfed him. Of course, the fact that he had participated in a gruesome act of murder was never mentioned in any detail by those who had constructed him as a hero. Instead, his act was explained as a deed ordained by the Almighty himself.
The same was the case with Mumtaz Qadri, the man who assassinated the former governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer. To thousands of (mostly Barelvi) Muslims, Qadri was a true believer who was fighting a kind of cosmic war against evil entities. Apparently, ‘eye-witness accounts’ of him in his death cell spoke about a constant ‘glow’ on his face.
This began to circulate on social media. The fact that he had actually filed a mercy plea against his conviction was suppressed by those who were constructing him as a hero. They were desperately seeking a ‘martyr’ for their ‘cause’.
The social psychologist George R. Goethals speaks of the “romance of heroism”, which leads to exaggerated perceptions of the heroic qualities in certain types of people, especially under conditions of stress and uncertainty. There are certain overarching cognitive and motivational biases within societies that can make them perceive heroic qualities in people, even when they are undeserving of that status. According to Goethals, when faced with uncertainty or stress, people are motivated to manufacture heroic leaders who can provide a sense of purpose and stability.
To Allison, romanticised desires to designate people as heroes are subject to distortion and can induce people to choose poor leaders. Contemporary examples in this regard include modern-day political populists who portray being iconoclastic and ‘anti-mainstream’ as heroic traits. Their growing number of followers begin to believe that the system was failing and needed a jolt (applied by the leader) to slip out of the grip of mainstream forces.
Such ‘heroes’ begin to be explained as the “embodiment of the righteous people”, so much so that even the most glaring flaws in the ‘heroes’ — scandals, corruption, outright lies etc — are either conveniently ignored or begin being dismissed as ‘propaganda’; or worse, as something to be tolerated for the greater good that the ‘hero’ is expected to usher.
In some cases, if there are enough people in a society who yearn for a leader who would restore (mostly mythical) versions of honesty, purity and piety, a hero is constructed as a messianic figure. These, too, are manufactured by individuals or segments of a society facing an existential crisis. In fact, the ‘crises’ can also be exaggerated.
In the age of social media, ‘influencers’ cultivate aspirational personas that are perceived as heroic. People involved in social causes or who have become ‘success stories’ are constructed as heroes, depending on current social, cultural and political trends. But they mostly fall off the radar as quickly as they appear on it.
Social media can also turn constructed heroes into constructed villains. Malala Yousafzai was elevated as a hero by the ‘progressives’ when she was shot in the face by Islamist militants in 2012. But a decade later, the same folk had begun to thumb their collective nose at her for not speaking out enough about Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
However, her stint as hero was comparatively longer than most. There are social activists, lawyers, vloggers, influencers, et al whose currency has risen and fallen with rapid speed on social media. They were/are constructed heroes shaped by and for the consumption of social media users. Some are quite conscious of this and curate their actions and content accordingly.
Recently, social media elevated the former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmad to the status of a ‘hero’ when he sailed to Gaza on a flotilla with a group of pro-Palestine activists — despite the fact that, before hopping on the boat, he was often derided by many for being a myopic right-wing reactionary.
Constructing heroes can lead to passive admiration. People only have to post their admiration on social media and cheer for what they themselves have created to reflect their own unrealised ideals and agendas. They believe their admiration is emerging from critical thinking. It really isn’t.
On social media, it seems everyone is either always busy constructing heroes to validate their own beliefs and ideals, or they are creating villains to exemplify what they don’t like. It’s mostly about validation or vilification.
Published in Dawn, EOS, October 12th, 2025
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