The Science and Technology Hub at Google’s New York outpost was the site of Monday afternoon’s The Internet and Uprisings in the Arab World: Are We Already in a Post-Social-Media World?, hosted by Wired and moderated by its New York bureau chief, John C. Abell.
Ease of use and access was a point that came up often, as Abell said, “With electricity and an Internet connection, you can whisper in Times Square and be heard anywhere else in the world,” and panelist Susannah Vila, director of content and outreach for Movements.org, added, “The fact that it’s free and easy and cool sort of underlines the need for people to see what’s happening in Egypt and get people together for an advocacy campaign.” Panelist Micah Sifry, co-founder and executive editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, pointed to how quickly people in parts of the Middle East are getting mobile phones, adding, “In the past few years, the number of people with mobile phones in Egypt has soared, something like 60 percent — same thing in Tunisia.” Adam Penenberg, assistant director of the business and economic reporting program at New York University, added, “During the civil-rights movement, if they had cell phones, they would have used them. Now we can reach many more people There’s nothing really new here: These are just tools that are amplifying the message we can connect and spread People are more connected: It helps in bringing people together.”
Sifry cautioned against generalizing and jumping to conclusions, saying, “I don’t think we know almost diddly about what’s actually going on. I think we have to be extremely careful before making judgments about the role of social media in Tunisia, Egypt, the rest of the Mideast, or anywhere else. We use the word ‘movement’ too easily. The language of revolution and movements is instead what we hear rather than the reality.”
