How can you follow the riots of Cairo in real time? Surprisingly, the answer is not necessarily a news website or a TV broadcast. Amongst the chaos in Egypt, more and more young individuals are revealing their voice through Twitter.
Twitter, along with other social media, is a new way of delivering rhetoric that can have a significant impact on the future. It is one of the reasons why the outcome of the current movement can be radically different from that of the ones before.
One result of Twitter is that the total population is much less organized. In movements before, a well-structured vertical hierarchy would exist. The leaders would sit at the top, their close friends would be slightly below them, and the crowd would follow. The organization in Cairo now is more horizontal, meaning that most people stand on the same level. While some people have more authority than others, Twitter allows the voice of each individual to be heard. Information does not come dominantly from propaganda, companies, and corporations; thus, the truth can spread faster than lies. Each person has the opportunity now to develop and share his own ideas.
One could argue that Twitter and other forms of social media are helping Egypt to move closer to a democracy. Thanks to the Internet, "Ideas arise, are very quickly market-tested and then either take off, bubble under, insinuate themselves into mainstream culture or, if they are no good, disappear." Democracy depends on openly sharing ideas, so that the best ones can stay and benefit the majority. Twitter thus provides a way for the people to have open and free rhetoric.
I am a member of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council and at our meeting last night, we discussed the situation in Egypt. Many members pointed to the role that technology such as Twitter has played in these riots. Like you said, access to the internet has provided a forum for open rhetoric and in a way moved Egypt closer to democracy.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Twitter is very useful for sharing opinions and thoughts about experiences or events happening in the world. Allowing ourselves to freely share opinions creates, like you said, open rhetoric which ultimately leads to a more public discourse and democratic society. Even better, people follow these sites like crazy and it provokes people to alter their opinions, or even formulate an opinion on something, leading to greater involvement in current events which can be useful for a crisis such as that in Egypt. Democracy is healthy!
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