5 ms·

you know that egypt has had the internet cut off for some time until recently right? twitter simply does not matter here. not one iota.

by svlla 16y ago

trustfundbaby 16y ago
That's because the protests had reached critical mass by then so it was too late ... If the Internet blackout had started a week ago we might be telling a different story right now.
ianhawes 16y ago
I think most people outside of Egypt (and especially in the tech scene) THINK that Twitter is whats fueling the protests, when in reality it is the mistakes of the current regime. While I'm sure social media does have _some_ impact, I doubt its anywhere near what western media is playing it out to be.
- zaidf 16y ago
  Well, let's humor this idea and goto the other extreme: that Twitter etc. had very little impact. Now, let's remove Twitter and the media completely. What do we get? So we had a revolution in Tunisia that was very well televised and communicated. Remove the modern means of communication and media and Egyptians would have no where as much of an idea or source of inspiration, certainly not within days of the Tunisian revolution. You can always retort that without mediums such as twitter news would still spread even if at a slower pace. And similarly, a revolution would also occur even if at a slower pace. Then the pace at which a revolution is occurring becomes a major point of contention in this debate. I'd argue that twitter, cell phones etc. have significantly increased pace of communication and thus the time to revolution. To, then, belittle them is like saying who needs cars when we could still WALK 5 miles; it'd just take longer. A lot longer.
  - svlla 16y ago
    that's not an argument about twitter, that's more about the internet and global communication. it would be different without the internet. it would not be different without twitter. even so, the internet only played one piece -- communicating what happened in Tunisia. there were so many other factors in place in Egypt that has brought it to where it is now that have nothing to do with technology, despite how much you seem to fetishize it.

you know that egypt has had the internet cut off for some time until recently right? twitter simply does not matter here. not one iota.

by svlla 16y ago

you know that egypt has had the internet cut off for some time until recently right? twitter simply does not matter here. not one iota.

trustfundbaby 16y ago

That's because the protests had reached critical mass by then so it was too late ... If the Internet blackout had started a week ago we might be telling a different story right now.

ianhawes 16y ago

I think most people outside of Egypt (and especially in the tech scene) THINK that Twitter is whats fueling the protests, when in reality it is the mistakes of the current regime. While I'm sure social media does have _some_ impact, I doubt its anywhere near what western media is playing it out to be.

zaidf 16y ago
Well, let's humor this idea and goto the other extreme: that Twitter etc. had very little impact. Now, let's remove Twitter and the media completely. What do we get? So we had a revolution in Tunisia that was very well televised and communicated. Remove the modern means of communication and media and Egyptians would have no where as much of an idea or source of inspiration, certainly not within days of the Tunisian revolution. You can always retort that without mediums such as twitter news would still spread even if at a slower pace. And similarly, a revolution would also occur even if at a slower pace. Then the pace at which a revolution is occurring becomes a major point of contention in this debate. I'd argue that twitter, cell phones etc. have significantly increased pace of communication and thus the time to revolution. To, then, belittle them is like saying who needs cars when we could still WALK 5 miles; it'd just take longer. A lot longer.
- svlla 16y ago
  that's not an argument about twitter, that's more about the internet and global communication. it would be different without the internet. it would not be different without twitter. even so, the internet only played one piece -- communicating what happened in Tunisia. there were so many other factors in place in Egypt that has brought it to where it is now that have nothing to do with technology, despite how much you seem to fetishize it.