Monday, 18 July 2011
By The Companion
Sibghat Husaini
@sayedct: Mubarak is waiting for his speech from the White House speech writer to arrive… but
the internet is down.
@EDSETIADI: “Egyptian Christians said they will guard the Muslims from the police while they on
Friday Pray.” Amazing solidarity!
jan25live: RNN: #Tahrir Square now: GO AWAY.. GO AWAY.. GO AWAY.. #jan25 #egypt
These are just few examples of thousands of tweets
going on these days on twitter. There is one more
tweet which says, “It’s so vital that world
understands this is not a divided #egypt”. Every moment
there is a new update and there is something new happening.
There are dozens of youths and students who are spending
their days and nights on Tahrir square, Cairo and sending
regular updates on all happenings through twitter,
Facebook, Google voice service, twitter phone line updates
and many other social media. Here is a world where
ambitions are coming true, where people are seeing their
dreams becoming reality. Thanks to the online social
networking communities, the world is now so small to catch
up anybody, anytime and anywhere.
From twitting of hundreds of twitter users to “We are
all Khaled Said” user community of Facebook, online social
networking sites are very rapidly becoming tools for social
change. And in last one month, the Jasmine revolution in
Tunisia, the current unrest in Egypt and downfall of Mubarak
regime and protest in other parts of South West Asia like
Jordon, Sudan, Algeria and Yemen etc were and are being
contributed by these social networking sites. The above
Facebook group has already crossed 39,000 fans figure
and the number is still growing exponentially.
It’s not only limited to the people of respective countries,
just have a look over tweets from other countries or posts,
links and videos on Facebook and you will know how the
people from all part of the world are connected with these
revolutions. In fact everybody who was interested in
knowing the updates of revolution was virtually feeling
himself on Tahrir square chanting slogans with protestors.
There is a virtual march going on in solidarity with people
of Cairo and Egypt and users are overwhelmingly joining
the cause as if they are actually marching on Tahrir square.
In spite of ban over twitter and social networking sites
in Egypt, people discovered new ways to overcome this and
get connected with outer world. The Mubarak government
later imposed a ban on internet services throughout Egypt
but this move backfired for the dictator. The protestors were
also on their way to show up their strength. Google started a voice service voice-to-twitter to facilitate the agitating
people to get connected through twitter. In last 1 week the
numbers of tweets about the unrest in Egypt have grown
almost 10-11 times. The users just need to call one of the
international numbers and have to leave a voice message.
Twitter will in turn send that as a tweet with the hash tag
#egypt. Though twitter was blocked through internet
services, but for many of the agitators, it was alive through
mobile service providers like blackberry. Some others
discovered the way to use special software to unblock twitter
and some found proxy web sites to reach out Facebook.
Mubarak regime was helpless in stopping people and the
messages were spreading in fractions of seconds in all
part of the world.
This is interesting to know (in fact this is now a known
reality) that the Egyptian revolution was actually started
by a blog posted by a lady activist Asma Mahfouz who
appealed the people openly to join her on Tahrir square.
“Enough is enough, I am going to Tahrir square now” and
the message was soon spread through Facebook and Twitter
across Cairo, Alexandria and other parts of Egypt and
people came out of their homes.
An aerial view posted on internet with people gathered
in Tahrir square, a snap of an army person enjoying food
with protestors and a video of Tahrir square protest and
clash of Armed Mubarak supporters with peaceful agitators,
all these were just a symbol of the change happening in
Egypt and all these played a big role in mobilizing the people
against the regime.
Facebook causes are now becoming a powerful tool to
promote and invite others for things that you are interested
in. It’s like creating a common objective platform and
inviting people to join it. In US this is also used for raising
funds for any specific cause, thus enabling ground level
activities for a particular objective. Last year in Columbia
a 200 thousand anti-FARC people march was arranged and
Facebook applications played a major role in organizing
people.
On the other hand twitter is considered as a fast tool
for information sharing. During the revolution, its users have discovered and succeeded in making it a powerful
tool for social change. In our own country, last year we saw
many developments happening in economic and political
circles which were linked with twitter. One of the most
important things that twitter gave us is the way information
is looked and shared in the world. The electronic and print
media which was considered as the primary and the most
important source of information and whose dominance in
the area of information sharing was never questioned is
now witnessing a new era of information which is
completely driven by masses and not limited to few
intellectuals. This may not be generalized and still there
are many milestones to cover, but at least the story of
Tunisia and Egypt reveal us the fact the era has already
started and is on the way of rapid growth.
Twitter also works as a medium for information and
data collection since many researches, organizers,
participants and silent observers can join together to
complete the information which simply removes dependency
over a single report as in case of traditional media. Of
course there will be many unwanted information, but with
some good analysis, data collection and smart techniques
it can lead you to the valuable information that can never
be provided by traditional media. The most important thing
is its speed and easiness to use. Anybody can use it and
can get or share the information at any time and in the way
that he likes. This has made it possible for it to act as an
agent for social change.
So are the networking sites really acting as agents for
social change? Are they really making difference in one’s
life? And if they are making in what sense, is it beneficial
for society, values, country or the humanity in large? Or are
they simply some tools which can be used in any way?
These questions are yet to be answered.
There is a counter theory which also exists. The
revolutions made many people believe that the social media
are playing a major role for creating unrest against
dictatorship or creating sensitivity or awareness against
social issues. Or in other words, the easy and fast
information sharing is creating awareness against wrong
things prevailing in the society. Can this be concluded that
freedom of information sharing also lead to freedom of
thoughts and right to express, perhaps the answer is not so
simple.
The story of Tunisia and Egypt cannot be completed
without Facebook and Twitter. But were only these sites
responsible for creating the unrest? Answer is obviously,
NOOO. People were under dictatorship and there was an
inner aspiration to fight for democracy in the entire country.
Sooner or later, this was going to be a reality. These sites
though played a role for starter or catalyst but these were
not the force to pull the people on the roads. It is believed (Myth?) that the internet has created a
virtual world where people are confined. It creates a
hypothetical world where there is a virtual replica of every
reality that we see in day to day life. There is life, there is
friendship, there is ‘event’, there is ‘cause’ and there is
‘business and market’ but all are virtual. The people
confined to these places have no roles in actual social
system and have no say or role in bringing any positive
change. But is it really true? The events happening from
last 2 months are telling a different story. But it is too early
to comment what changes this will bring in other parts of
world?
For people who are struggling and working for a
positive change in the society, it is important that there
must be a parallel world existing vis-à-vis the virtual social
network which can present and give opportunity to express
the virtual activism on to real world. The numbers counted
on virtual march, virtual events and virtual libraries are
meaningless if their significance is not felt in real world.
The example may be relevant to quote that the virtual online
campaigning of saffron forces in 2009 parliamentarian
election did not convert into votes. One reason could be
that India still lives in Villages far away from these
hypothetical worlds, but the major reason is the ‘Strategy
makers’ of BJP were unable to sense the real feelings of
even this virtual world. So there is a lot more to do to actually
create a momentum through online world. Will the social
networks bring any positive change in every part of the
both “virtual” and “real” world, only time can tell!
