Twitterlution

Last week I read an article in the Evening Standard by Ian Birrell titled “Can Twitter and the internet start a revolution?” and it got me thinking how the gargantuan growth of the micro blog is most definitely a force to be reckoned with! The piece picked up on the growth of political protest launches through Twitter. Birrell commented that they demonstrate the “emerging power of social networking as a force for protest, disruption and anarchic chaos”. Through online networking sites such as Twitter, it is fair to say, social activism has been reinvented.

Using the protests against tax avoidance outside Topshop, Oxford Street, last week as an example, Birrell illustrated how protests in the digital age have speed, scale and unpredictability on their side. There has been an emergence of people up and down the country arranging politically orientated meet ups and demonstrations organised through the micro blogging site Twitter. The rise of and accessibility to the worldwide web across the globe has opened doors to a new world of instability and chaos from sources like online terrorism and identity theft. The recent growth of political protests within online social networking sites has orchestrated a new avenue through which the internet can be utilised as a portal for anarchy or revolution, however you might like to look at it...

In October this year a piece appeared in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell called “Small Change- Why the Revolution Will not Be Tweeted” Gladwell argued that the kind of activism associated with social media isn’t built around strong enough relationships claiming the “platforms of social media are built around weak ties...weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism”. To this I disagree; surely personal bonds online emanate from a shared cause. You don’t have to know someone’s shoe size or favourite tipple to feel like you have a relationship with someone. Surely the most important thing is to have mutual beliefs and a common cause for action - shared values are not a thing to be sniffed at!

Whether it be used as a force for good or bad, through online social media, we are living in a social revolution; the dawn of online social activism is upon us!

Victoria

Comments

[Travis]

I like your twitterlution post. Though I might agree with Gladwell. Couldn't the general acceptance of instability and chaos in all elements of the digital era undermine the whole idea of protest as an act of destabilization?

[Travis]

I saw it on twitter, but then you unfollowed me so much for the revolution. @NewTsteUWS