Social Media as an Instrument of change

The 2016 Presidential Election is flooding our televisions, radios, facebook

pages, and every other form of media with arguments on the better candidate of 2
candidates from the two parties that have governed our country for decades. We as
Americans give a huge amount of attention, arguably too much, to this race that occurs
every 4 years. Each time around, people debate and bicker about what issues are more
pressing in America, and how we can solve them, and while some tend to get very
heated and passionate about these issues, at the end of the day, the problem solving
rate of the United States is very slow. While many people wish our government would
take quicker and more drastic action, at the end of the day, the slow nature of our
political system and the passive bystander citizens are proof of our nation’s political
stability, and the general well being of the population as a whole.

Khalid Albaih’s talk last week gave all of us a new perspective on an unstable political
and economic climate, how quickly societies can erupt into radical protests, and how
powerful the relatively new tool of social media can be as an igniter of revolution. Khalid
Albaih, has produced many works of art that are of little monetary value. But if you walk
through the streets of major cities in Muslim nations, you will find his work reproduced
as graffiti on the streets. Through social media, Khalid has been able to exercise a
uniquely powerful voice and be a source of inspiration for the oppressed citizens of the
Arab world.

Khalid also gave us a new perspective on our good friend Facebook, a tool many of us
have used since 6th grade to post funny videos and photo albums on our walls. The way
we think of Facebook as a social tool is very different from how people from the Arab
world use Facebook as a social tool. Before the internet, people of the Arab world were
socially oppressed through strict national boarders, no freedom of speech, and a media
controlled by the government. The rise of social media gave people a voice and means
of connecting with others that they never had before, and it opened many social and
political doors, mainly, in the form of sharing ideas and organizing demonstrations.
Today, we look back on the spring of 2010, now known as the “Arab Spring,” where
citizen uprisings occurred widespread across the Arab world, with major uprisings in
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. With free communication on the
internet, citizens could finally organize and group together to protest the horrible living
conditions and social regulations that their governments do nothing to fix. There is still
much work to be done to raise living standards in these nations, but people of this
region have discovered the fact that they cannot and will not be oppressed by their
governments anymore.

Khalid is living proof that social media is arguably the most powerful instrument of
change that we have today.

Fleming, J. ( 2016, October 4) Social Media as an Instrument of Change.

Summary and Reaction

 Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to

community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

The news article is about the Presidential Election in 2016 that is cause flood in

are television, radios, face book pages, and every other form of media with arguments

on the better candidate of 2 candidates from the two parties that have governed our

country for decades. Each time around, people debate and bicker about what issues are

more pressing in America. Some tend to get very heated and passionate about these

issues, at the end of the day, the problem solving rate of the America is very slow. The

slow nature of the political system and the passive bystander citizens are proof of the

nation’s political stability. Khalid Albaih’s talk last week gave all of us a new perspective

on an unstable political and economic climate. Through social media, Khalid has been

able to exercise a uniquely powerful voice and be a sources of inspiration for the

oppressed citizens of the Arab world. The way we think of Face book as a social tool is

very different from how people of the Arab world use Face book as a social tool. The

rise of social media gave people a voice and means pf connecting with others that they

never had before, and it opened many social and political doors, mainly, in the form of

sharing ideas and organizing demonstrations. Khalid is living proof that social media is

arguably the most powerful instrument of change that we have today.

My own reaction about the news article is that the internet has played a large role

in this transformation. Social media, in particular, is now a serious factor in political

campaigns and in they way people think about issues.