Social media revolutions
A trend that's quickly on the rise has caused a combination of violence, chaos, transformation, and awareness in countries across the globe. Social media revolutions literally revolutionized the Egyptian government earlier this year when citizens used various social media outlets to "spread awareness, organize protests, and build a powerful force that not even (President) Murbarak could elude". But this freedom did not come cheap; during the revolt many were arrested, beaten, tortured, and even sexually assaulted by those in power.
Then we have the riots in London that started out as a peaceful march protesting the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by a police officer. However, this quickly turned into widespread rioting, rebellion and crime throughout England, much of which was organized through social and mobile technologies such as Twitter and Blackberry Messenger Service (BBM). A total of 5 people died, 16 people were injured and 3,443 crimes were committed at the end of what started out as a peaceful protest.
Occupy Wall Street
"You have a lot of kids graduating college who can't find jobs. That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."
-NYC Mayor, Mike Bloomberg
A little late for that.
Protestors have spent the past two weeks occupying the streets of New York's financial district in support of #OccupyWallStreet, a movement that aims to topple existing power structures. Demonstrators have used a combination of social media channels to fuel their battle; live blogging, tweeting (hashtag #OccupyWallStreet) and YouTube videos have helped keep people up to date on the Occupy Wall Street campaign.
Despite the fact that thousands of people have been camping out on Wall Street for the past two weeks, the media has shown little coverage on this campaign. Until video of "a bunch of little white girls getting maced" in the face by an NYPD Deputy Inspector, for no apparent reason, spread like wildfire on YouTube and other social media sites, that is. Over 100 people have been arrested so far and it's unknown how many people, if any, have been injured at this point. You can watch the video for yourself below:
But with all the pandemonium these rallies have caused, you have to ask yourself: Are social media revolutions powerful or pathetic?