Social Structures of the Public Sphere

            Throughout the world, social media is rising at a rapid rate for many different purposes. Social media is a powerful tool where individuals have the ability to get information in a matter of seconds.  Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube make it easy to connect to other people or businesses. However, places like Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries in the Middle East used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to advocate protest and revolutions. During the protests or revolutions people would post pictures, videos or “minute by minute” tweets.  The government in Egypt became fed up with the uprising, so they disconnected the people from social media in order to take control. The article states, “Disappointingly, Twitter and Google have also agreed to help the Syrian government and oppressive regimes by enforcing rules that censor tweets or blog posts in Syria by blocking them out within-country”.  I was completely shocked when I read this as the government was disregarding people’s freedom of speech or human rights. In my opinion, this would not stop the uprising; it would make people more upset. Although, the article points out that there were successful revolutions before the telephone; I believe that social media has made revolutions even easier to occur. People have the ability to make things happen faster. They are able to post on Facebook and Twitter a date, time and place to meet. It is easier for people that do not live close to get in touch by receiving photos or videos instantly from the people that are there. Also, social media allows the word to get out to more people than the old-fashioned word of mouth on the streets. Without social media, I do not think that the revolution in any of the countries mentioned would have been as successful. In the world we live in today, people would not survive without social media. People depend way too much on websites such as Facebook and Twitter to get information about anything instantly.