#2 Social Media and Egypt

Egypt has taken social media revolution to new heights when it shut down the Internet two weeks ago. The egyptian government battled to contain protests against President Hosni Mubarak who threw the country into an Internet black hole in hopes to curb political unrest. This took the world by storm as we wonder what the future of the Internet will be in times of political turbulence. Deadly protests also show the strong influences of social media, namely Facebook and Twitter, on the lives of people, and the lack of it stirring up much unhappiness in this Internet competent age.

The impact of social media is so profound, that although access to the Internet had been denied, citizens of Egypt still managed to tap on uncensored Internet and Satellite television to organize nationwide protests. Ongoing revolts over the last two weeks made President Mubarak succumb to overwhelming pressure, and ordered for the reactivation of the Internet, which again, made headlines on today's newspapers.

We can see from this that unless brainwashed (ref: the people of North Korea), the Internet has become a necessity to us, for the best and worst reasons. Social media has not only provided us with a huge platform for participating in news debates, and social interaction, it also increased the marketability of goods and services online, which aids tremendously to our convenience. Instead of the grocer being a stone's throw away, it has become a click away, and in all irony, turns tables around and condemns the issue. We then begin to wonder if too much of a good thing can really lead to a bad thing, and that social media has suddenly made us socially impaired-- We only possess the ability to communicate adeptly online.

In the case of President Mubarak, he was more concerned about the fact that people can discuss political issues online (just as how they ramble incessantly about the new celebrity in town), and disrupt current autocratic dynamics between him and his country, which made him call for the Internet shut down in the first place. This shows that the advantages of the Social Media offsets the disadvantages. Yes, there could be credit card fraud and identity thefts and they are increasing in number. However, there hadn't been uproars of protests about that issue unlike how Egypt lost possession of free speech through the closure of the Internet. For obvious reasons, we have evolved into a world of technology and confiscating technology will only spark off riots.

Luckily for the Egyptians, their Internet service has been resurrected from the dead and they no longer have to revisit stone age... at least for now.