Week 11: Facebook and Twitter - The Social Revolutions

This week is all about Facebook and Twitter:

(Additional reading) 

Morozov E 2011, Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go, The Guardian, 7 March

[ URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/07/facebook-twitter-revolutionaries-cyber-utopians ]

Nowadays, more people are available on the Internet by Facebook, Twitter, blog, YouTube and many more. Facebook has increased the number of active users to more than 750 million by today. So, what does it mean? Basically, the increment of active users for Facebook represents the number of people use Internet has increased too. It is due to the new boomer Z is increased, the technology is more advance and more people are adapt to it. Let's discuss how Facebook and Twitter affect our life, our society in several aspects.

1. Understand the Social Media Revolution

During 2000s, the web was simple but now we have so many interactive multimedia tools available on the Web such as video (YouTube), music (iTunes), communication (Social Networking sites such as Facebook, instant messaging). We can do many things now in one shot via Internet. Watch the below video to help you understand more on social media. It talks about the audience for social media such as YouTube and Facebook and also discusses the trend for social media in nowadays.

Socialnomics09 8th June 2011, Social media revolution 2011, YouTube.com

Video viewed on 16th October 2011 

[ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo ]

2. Facebook and Twitter Usage and User?

Facebook is about networking. In brief, it is about making and meeting friends from worldwide. You can communicate with other people who are available from Facebook and expand your social network by adding different nationalities of friends. Since there are too many Facebook active users from worldwide which means the audience for Facebook is really huge. Any information share within Facebook can be delivered to mass audience at the same time and even faster than traditional media. It is one of the significant advantages of delivering information via Facebook. You can share anything you want included video and photos through Facebook.

On the other hand, Twitter is also can do with social networking even it is a micro blog site. Users can tweet any information, thoughts, and even any stories they want, just like an online diary log but limited words count for each tweet.  Twitter also can be a platform to information sharing then information searching.

In contrast, either Facebook or Twitter also can be a platform to search information from what others posted, share information and deliver message to mass audience. We are now the produsers for these social networking sites (SNS), we are the users and also the producers for the contents at the same time. Facebook, Twitter and other social sites such as YouTube, blogs are user-generated. Basically, is we the users to contribute the content. Facebook and Twitter are powerful in information sharing even though those are user-generated content. The following video discusses, the impact of social media on information sharing and how social media can be powerful to change your social life and your mind. Watch this:   

DABWorldWide 22th September 2010, A day in the life of the social media, YouTube.com

Video viewed on 16th October 2011 

[ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iReY3W9ZkLU&feature=related ]

3. The Influences of Facebook and Twitter in Politic

Since, Facebook and Twitter are the platform to delivery message and information in more freedom and interactive ways and also reach mass audience. Thus, politicians and citizens use SNS to discuss politic issues. For example, civic hacking or e-democracy which have been discussed in previous post. Moreover, the ways to access to various SNS are broad. You can use your personal computer, smart phones and even tablets. Today, many people log in to Facebook and Twitter check for updates and it is a daily activity now. Therefore, the chances for them to expose to political issues, news or information through SNS are higher when the information are available on the net.

The United States current President Barack Obama do have a Twitter account and he has more than one million followers. Whatever stories Obama have shared on his Twitter account, his followers would aware of those tweets. This proves SNS can help to gain attention from citizens.

Social media is about the Internet and the Internet thing seems to be virtual. However, cyber-Utopian believes social media can be useful for politic and also social for instant. Basically, cyber-Utopian refers to a person who uses Internet believes the phenomenon of Internet is positive and the network is doing goods for people. Thus, they believe using social media to have discussion on civic problems can be helpful. The cyber-Utopian or cyber-activism uses virtual medium (SNS) to deliver reality information for politic. Social media can be useful in some other ways. People could use social media to do virtual protest and make people feel like it is not really a political protest. For example, people in Dubai are not able to do protest due to security risk but they belie it by organizing and doing random activities on the net.

Then, what makes the people actively use social media for politic? Basically, is the censorship of traditional media and it limits the access to government. Moreover, security and risk would be another issue too. Maybe it is too risky and affect the security of the society if doing real protest especially countries in Middle East. However, social media has more freedom of expression and it benefits people to tell more about politic. People not longer group themselves on the street and protest, they can share their thoughts, dissatisfaction, complaints, and even expressions through social media and achieve the effects of protest - this is virtual protest. Watch this video and you might have a brief idea on how people use social media to do politic in Middle East.

AbbasAlidinaTV 3th July 2011, Social media and the Middle East revolution (The National), YouTube.com

Video viewed on 16th October 2011

[ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-HZYZNk0w ] 

So what would happen if there are no Facebook and Twitter? The Internet or the web will still revolve but we do not know what will form then. Maybe is something similar but not calling Facebook or Twitter. The current trend is Facebook and Twitter seem to be very important and significant to our life. We use them for social, business, marketing, promotion, employment, and even politic. Who can really guess how the web will change in the future five years? I guess all these social media will become more advance and more interactive than you and I could think of. In addition, Facebook and Twitter with various significant advantages, they allow us to share thoughts and expressions towards a particular politic issue but please do not abuse it. Do not forget, certain countries are govern and monitor our online activities by legislation. 

(PS: not everything can be shared via SNS in certain countries. So please be careful, do not breach the law.)