Discuss the importance of Internet technologies in the recent Egyptian protests. How have technologies like Facebook and Twitter impacted the movement?
Prior to reading this discussion question, I didn't even have a clue that FB and Twitter had even the smallest role in the Egyptian protests. So, I read an article and watched a video pertaining to this topic. I was amazed at the importance of these two social media sites and how useful they were to people that were in the heart of the movement. For example, some people would tweet that they needed an ambulance at a certain street corner. I have never even thought of using my Twitter in case of an emergency like that. However, if I were in a desperate situation, I guess I would eventually think to myself to use my FB and Twitter applications on my phone to contact people. They were also important in exposing what was going on in their land as well as informing the public about what types of progress have been made. Also, journalists were having a hard time reporting while they were over there because of the violence and because of attempts by people trying to stop the movement to prevent any news not beneficial to them to become internationally reported. Instead people would go on FB in order to share information in groups or Twitter to report or announce important messages. I am very impressed with how these two sites were used. I use FB and Twitter everyday, so I know how most people use the sites, and it is definitely not as empowering as how it was used by the people in Egypt.
(BTW, I don't know what's wrong with my computer, but I can't turn off the italics. Sorry!)
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