Sejun Oh / Northwood High school 10th Grade

As the modern world progresses, we are constantly met with an onslaught of developing technology. The most prevalent of our current Information Age is social media in its vast plat¬forms. With the advent of such new technology, the mixtures of old ideals and recent applications have been surprising. Within the last few years, we have seen the many civilian uprisings against their autocratic governments. But who would have ever guessed that social media would come to play a significant and crucial role in these revolutions?

Social media has without a doubt been a ma¬jor factor in enabling revolutions to exist. Not only is it an effective means by which to dis¬seminate information in a rapid manner but it also motivates people to stand their ground. The most prevalent and recent public demonstrations including the Ukraine Crisis and the Arab Spring depended on social media for its recruiting pur¬poses. When the first protestors arrived on scene, the mass amounts of people could not have been drawn together based on traditional news sites or rumors. The news could have censored out any information of a prospective revolution as in China when they intentionally censored the word “Jasmine” from its search engines. Social Media was the main reason news of any protests reached the ears of individuals residing far from the epicenter of the situation.

A major reason for the effectiveness of social media in uniting individuals for a cause is the motivating factor. There is a motivation to keep the movement growing even when times are rough. This incentive comes as the individual first handedly feels as he or she is playing a direct role in the movement. The unity and magnitude of the movement brings confidence that hard work will give success to remaining protestors.

The aversion towards the current enemy or ineffective political system and camaraderie be¬tween protestors inspires the desire to continue to struggle for what the common people truly desire. Social media has been able to fill the niche for what independent revolutions need- a platform to unite members and build camarade¬rie while disseminating critical information that may have been censored by the government. Whether or not social media will continue to play a crucial role in revolutions is yet to be seen as the many avenues of social media develop.