Facebook is growing exponentially. It started with the intention that it would function as a website to connect college kids with each other, it grew in the number of users to connect high school students, then older generations, and finally as a means to stay in touch with everyone in the world. Facebook has become a way of communicating that Mark Zuckerberg would have never imagined. I am interested in researching the different uses of Facebook and how it has evolved to become such a powerful means of communication. Facebook has recently been in the news lately and has been a key component in political decisions especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I want to find out why the government reacts the way they do to the use of Facebook. Even though the government fears Facebook and its power, I believe Facebook has evolved in a positive way to create widespread change and influence. Despite the potential hazards of Facebook, I think the website is more beneficial than harmful. I think in terms of a revolt or revolution Facebook is one of the best options in organizing mass groups of supporters. I want to answer the questions: How has Facebook emerged? Why has Facebook become so popular and so widely used to organize mass demonstrations? How has the use of Facebook led to changes in politics? Would there be the same political outcomes without Facebook? Why does the government fear Facebook? The hurdles I have faced thus far are finding evidence on current events as there are only limited news articles. I am having trouble finding ones that give me a full detailed story (I can find brief articles, but I am looking for in depth reports) of the accounts that took place in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Based on my research thus far Facebook has emerged to become the leader and key component in influencing changes in politics, but outside the United States the government is looking to put a stop to the usage.
Annotated Bibliography
Couts, Andrew ."Egypt’s ‘Facebook Generation’ Pressures Mubarak to Step Down."
Technology News, Product Reviews, Software Downloads, Digital Trends. 11
A campaign to influence Mubarak to step down was started by one man through Facebook. Even when Egypt shut down the Internet, people found ways to share with the rest of the world what was happening through phoning into Google to post their tweets and sending in videos of the violence to upload. This article discusses how a revolution was started through Facebook. Facebook was able to influence the political system by organizing mass groups of people. I am interested for my project to look at the ways in which Facebook can have an impact on the government and how change is now a mass movement through the Internet because our world is more connected by technology.
Dalsgaard, Steffen. “Facework on Facebook: The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life and
Its Role in the US Elections.” Anthropology Today 24 (2008): 8-12. Jstor. Web.
This article discusses how Facebook allows us to present ourselves as individuals. It also examines how political power can be gained from the use of Facebook especially in the campaign with President Obama. His popularity and number of supporters grew through his use of advertising on the Internet and using websites like Facebook. I am interested to look at the latter part of this article and compare and contrast the use of Facebook by Presidents to gain political power the use of Facebook by people in a country to gain power to change politics, as it seems the user of Facebook is the one that creates change.
Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Liberation versus Control.” Journal of
Democracy: Project Muse Volume 21, 4 (2010). Web 13 March 2011.
This article argues that the use of the Internet lies between a technology of liberation and a technology of control and is more complex than associating it with one title. The Internet can create boundless opportunities, but also contains us. It argues that human thinking can use technology in ways the creator never intended. For my project I want to look at the uses of the Internet, especially Facebook and how it has shaped the society we have become in terms of defining what type of technology the Internet is.
"Facebook Revolt Descends Upon Saudi Arabia." One India News, 11 Mar. 2011. Web.
14 Mar. 2011. http://news.oneindia.in
This article mentions a situation in Saudi Arabia similar to the one in Egypt. It provides another example of protestors organizing through Facebook to create political change. Facebook has become one of the most powerful means of communication and this page created by protestors got 30,000 followers in Saudi Arabia and proves to be the easiest way to rally the population. In this case, government officials used firearms to break up the protest. I want to use different examples of revolts in my project and examine the way in which the government chooses to react.
Kirkpatrick, David. The Facebook Effect: the Inside Story of the Company that is
Connecting the World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Print.
Kirkpatrick provides an account of the history of Facebook. He examines how it started back in a dorm room to how it has grown to be one of the most popular and widely used websites. For my project I am interested in how a nineteen year old Harvard student was able to create a website so powerful. I want to incorporate the history and development of Facebook as background knowledge for my project.
York, Jillian. " The Dangers of Social Media Revolt - Opinion - Al Jazeera English ."
AJE - Al Jazeera English. 9 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. http://english.aljazeera.net
This article mentions the repercussions people face when using Facebook to start a revolt. There are potential risks such as the government being able to hack into your account and government spying, but in general the benefits of using Facebook to organize something like a protest are more important to consider than the potential risks. I am interested to see the government reacts to the widespread use of Facebook and how fearful they are of what Facebook enables a group of people or even one person to accomplish. For my project I want to examine the ways in which governments are acting to stop the spread of Facebook and also consider the potential risks involved in using Facebook.
Outstanding topic. When you focus this on a single governing claim, it may be in answer to this question I have: What is it about social media that Middle Eastern governments do not understand?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they have set up their information infrastructures in a way that makes them blind to the power of server clusters and software hosted outside their borders. I also wonder if anyone in the Mubarak government regretted sponsoring so much technological education in their high schools and colleges, all in the service of building a more educated populace.
By the way, how did Egypt's youth become so connected online? It is not an extremely wealthy nation, yet after Turkey and Israel, you'd be hard-pressed to find another country in that region with such broad use of the Internet.
Finally, if the Libyan revolt fails, I wonder if the rebels did not raise the civilian populace in the same ways we witnessed last month, next door in Egypt.