The Political Power of Social Media

The article by Shirky, "The political power of social media," only better enhances the proof of the effect new media has on the way we organize into groups in order to accomplish tasks. Like Shirky brought up in his essay about the Sidekick, his response to Gladwell was a reiteration of the essays we have been reading from Shirky all semester.

The addition of new media to any citizens life drastically changes the framework of our governments and society. We have all seen or heard about social media having a dramatic effect on the manner in which people organize. This is especially true with the younger generation. The younger generation was one of the main reasons Mubarak was ousted in Egypt. If not for the younger generation organizing through social and new media, the Madison protests would probably not have been as great as they were and may still continue to be. I was at the first week the protests occurred and of the people there, at least 40 percent of them were under 25.

Like Shirky, I do not agree with Gladwell's response. He is citing wrong examples when trying to prove that new media hasn't had a great effect on companies such as Land's End. Something Shirky didn't bring up is now these companies have to deal with retailers all over the world selling their product at a reduced price. While new media doesn't greatly alter the way companies like Land's End communicate with their customers, competition has now been increased.

The question Shirky asks is what should U.S. policy be regarding social media? My say is this: embrace it. It's another way for your citizens to exercise their first amendment rights and allows for them to peacefully assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances. New media has become one of the best ways for U.S. citizens to organize on a massive scale in order to accomplish things. Current president Barack Obama embraced social media and headed one the largest Internet political campaigns in this nation's history. He used his campaign as a way for citizens to discuss issues that were important to them and allowed them to make contributions to the campaign online.