It’s funny how significant even the most glib media-coined words and phrases can turn out to be.
All the talk of the Social Media “revolution” over the last few years appears powerfully prophetic in the light of the role that social media has played in the unrest and regime change that has dominated the news recently.
When the Egyptian and Tunisian governments are actively blocking access to Facebook and Twitter, it’s obvious that they’ve become far more powerful weapons than baseball bats and the odd artfully lobbed rocks ever were.
And when even “sleepy London town” (as Mick Jagger once referred to it) is inspired to embrace the Parisian student spirit of ’68 to protest against rising fees, you realise how seismically social media has shifted both personal and political action.
But what is it that has turned places where you once merely put up silly photos from the Christmas party and links to funny videos, into entities that have governments quaking in their military boots?
I’d argue that a principal reason is that they’ve brought back a sense of connectedness and collective identity. We know that the old-fashioned concept of community is a thing of the past and the Union’s power has been battered and eroded over the years. But the advent of social media seems to have allowed people a chance to re-discover a sense that “we’re all in it together” and reminded us that when we choose to exercise our collective will, it’s a mightily potent force.
And when status updates go from “feeling bored : )” to “just brought down a government”, it’s about time we all started taking a bit more care in how we utilise this digital revolutionary that’s sat on our desks, patiently waiting to change the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment