Social media, a powerful source to make voices heard
Jeff Moses
Every time I use a device with Internet access I am instantly connected to over 750 people. Some of them close personal friends, some of them casual acquaintances, some business relations, and even three or four people I don’t actually know. With a few clicks of the keyboard my thoughts and ideas can instantly be sent out via the net literally all over the world.
A social media outlet as enormous as Facebook has proved that in the hands of a motivated population it can affect massive change, yet in America it still seems to be not much more than a detailed micro-blog.
Terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah have been committing atrocities for decades affecting very little change, but 18 days of non violent protest sparked by Facebook interactions has over thrown the 30-year regime of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.
Barack Obama said in his speech on Feb. 11, “above all, we saw a new generation emerge – a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears.”
Facebook and other social media outlets have the power to affect real and lasting change. If the Egyptians overthrew a dictator in just 18 days, what could a motivated group of Americans do if we stopped posting what we ate for lunch, our favorite bands, and started using it to share important ideas?
In democracy there is strength in numbers, but in life the strength is in action. The petitions for gay rights “liked” by millions of people sitting in their computer chairs doesn’t move law makers in the same way a Facebook organized mass protest would.
Gandhi drove the English out of India, in short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, and Martin Luther King Jr. affected real and lasting change in America quicker then Gandhi did in India. What if either of them could instantly contact all of their supporters?
For the first time we the “unwashed masses” can communicate with each other faster than “they” can, and with some motivation we could absolutely mobilize as a force for change in the world, armed with our computers, prepared to peacefully enforce our will upon the government, and never again the other way around.
