revolution

Social Media and Revolution

I just read an interesting article about social media and the effects that it has had in world politics and, specifically, revolution.  This has been most recently demonstrated in the fall of dictatorial leadership in both Tunisia and Egypt.

Social media has reached its point of critical mass, allowing users to raise awareness, get attention and even cause revolution.  It could be said that social media is revolutionizing revolution.

According to Fast Company’s expert blogger Kaihad Krippendorff, in his article ‘Social Media Does More Than Support Revolutions’, social media does far more than help us ‘connect’ or ‘organize.’  He says there are four fundamental ways social media is changing society: Speed, Syndication, Integrity and Transparency.  Let’s take a further look:

Speed: One of the biggest impacts of social media is the speed at which it can be effective.  By increasing the speed that we are able to share, spread and send messages there is a greater impact felt.  But that is only part of the puzzle.

Syndication: Easy syndication of a message is made possible through the tools of social media, like Facebook and Twitter.  There is great ease in getting a broad message out, and this allows for momentum to build behind the message.

Integrity: Through social media, unlike other forms of communication, a message maintains its integrity and meaning.  There are fewer communication errors (providing the initial message is correct).  This means that messages can provide more details and therefore carry more meaning.

Transparency: Social media provides somewhat of a veil for people to stand behind when sharing or creating messages.  This allows for greater expression because there is a sense of being anonymous.  Users tend to feel safe and often share more information than they might normally.

These four fundamental ways social media is changing society are refreshingly evident in the cases of both Tunisia and Egypt.  With far reaching power, social media has proven that it can do a lot more than inform us of what someone ate for lunch or how bad the customer service was at the local grocer.

What other fundamental changes has social media made to society?

Taylor

Tags: change, collaboration, facebook, revolution, Social Media, society, Twitter

The Social Media Revolution

This video has been floating around for a bit, but, a friend sent it to me again this weekend and I’m reminded what a great presentation it is.  Enjoy!

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8]

- Moyra

Tags: revolution, Social Media, video, youtube