This is an interesting topic for me. A few quarters ago in a sociology class we watched a video of a documentary inside the protests of Egypt following some of the lead protesters that we're deciding where to go and what to do. At the time I knew nothing of the involvement of facebook and twitter on the revolution there. They showed when the government in Egypt shut off the internet to stop the spread of the tweets cutting off the main way the protestors communicated. They made it sound as if they had just had their most powerful weapon taken away and it just well may have been.
I watched this video about the social medias affects on the revolution as well called Egypt's Internet Revolution. In the video they say that "social media did not cause what is happening but it might have acted as a vehicle that increased the speed at which these thing were unfolding". I agree with that statement social media isn't the cause, but it is a large part of the result. It makes this information easy and accessible for all to see I can't imagine an easier way to mobilize an already motivated people.
Another interesting point that they brought up is the potential dangers that posting this information on the internet can cause. Using the internet in some ways can be like the ultimate paper trail you can trace back the IP address and find out all sorts of information about the people that were using it, such as their location. When you're trying to bring down a government dictatorship that really isn't the safest formation to have out there. These people are really putting themselves at risk. In a sense it's a double edged sword, social media is helping to make these protests happen, but at what price.
In the same video they talk about historians looking back on this time as a turning point, which it really is. I can't think of any comparison to getting information out there and it having such an effect.
Switching gears a little bit the article on CNN How social media are amplifying customer outrage is something that I found that I could relate to. They discuss what I like to call the netflix fiasco. The poorly executed plan on raising netflix prices that sent their users into an uproar. I was one of those users. I remember the initial email I received informing me of the price increases and the changes to the plans you could purchase. I was rather annoyed, but I didn't voice my thoughts about it. In the following days I read the articles that appeared on yahoo about the amount of disgruntled users they had and how upset they were. Reading how upset other people were made me realize that I should be more upset to. After reading all the comments I decided to join in and voice my concerns as a long time loyal customer. In the cnn article it says "But is a social network different? The comfortingly clear identities of
people who share your outrage, reinforcing your opinion with camaraderie
and conversation -- do these things stoke anger that would have
otherwise fizzled out?" This is exactly what happened to me. Yes, I was annoyed with the raise it netflix's prices, but I didn't not become angry till I realized how angry everyone else was and what a huge deal this was becoming.
So whether it be a tweet or facebook post rallying protestors to stand for an injustice, or the simple raising of a widely used company's product to an unjust prices. Social media is having an impact good, bad or ugly. I guess it just depends on which side you of the trending topic you're on.
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