Democratization through the use of Social Media

Social networking sites have become increasingly popular in recent times. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of Facebook or Twitter. Social media is the postmodern form of communication, which allows people to announce to the world every detail of their mundane lives, while maintaining complete isolation from the outside world.

However, there's still hope for some kind of meaningful use of social media. Look no further than Egypt to see the democratizing power of social networking. The Egyptian people have used sites like Facebook and Twitter to organize a revolution against their corrupt, authoritarian government. The technology was so effective in helping to stage the revolt, that the Egyptian government has proceeded to shut down access to social networking sites and has even cut off all phone and internet services in the country.

The people of Egypt are seeing the democratizing potential of social media and communications technology. Through the use of Facebook and Twitter, those voices that would have otherwise gone unheard, are being given a platform for dissent and political change.