Polyglot Incarnate

Social media has not only been at the core of major protest stories, but drove some of 2011’s biggest news, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring. Digital tools such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have defined this year’s social movements by giving rise to a new generation of activism. …

I’ll just go ahead and add some of my thoughts here, but it’s really interesting the impact social media has on societies. When I was in China we got to have lunch with an Egyptian diplomat and we heard some of his [censored/diplomatic] perspectives on the Revolution in Egypt. The one thing that stuck out to me was how he was put in a Catch 22: it was his government that was falling-the government he worked for, and yet I think he probably supported the rebels to an extent. He was in China during that whole time and he and his co-workers/friends weren’t quite sure what they could post online or how they should respond exactly. 

I don’t even remember quite how I found this link, but I think it’s worth pondering.

Signing off-

Alice