In Howard Rheingold’s “Smart Mobs”, he talks about how cell phones were used to organize demonstrations in order to overthrow governments in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in several different countries. More recently, this has happened in Egypt with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I think it’s crazy that text messages and social networking sites like Facebook can have such a huge impact to organizing a governmental overthrow. I get on Facebook multiple times a day to update my status, upload pictures, and to see what my friends are doing—petty reasons. Never would I have thought that it could have such a serious use, and never ever would I have thought that someone would name their baby “Facebook” because they were so happy that the protests in Egypt were made possible via this site.
In response to the January 25th revolution in Egypt, the government took Internet and cell phone communication away. What I want to know is how the government thinks that by taking away Internet and cell phone usage, it is going to make the problem better? This to me seems like an easy way to make your citizens even angrier which leads to more burning of buildings, violence, and death of your own citizens. With the U.S. having one of the highest usages of social networking sites, it’s scary to think what would happen if a revolution started in our country.
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