Be it a domino effect, an infection, an epidemic or whatever else it can be referred to as, the recent uprisings in the Middle East have brought much fright to the leaders of the region.
It is often said that history repeats itself, but such a widespread simultaneous uprising of people in the region has never been witnessed before. So, why now? What is so fundamentally different about our times and our generation that has led to such events?
I suppose the answer can be best displayed in the story of a newborn girl in Egypt whose parents have named ‘Facebook’—although I think Twitter would have been a more suitable name for a girl. The parents of ‘Facebook’ epitomized the significance of current events in the Middle East through the naming of their daughter.
Technology and mass access to information is what sets this generation apart from its predecessors. In a region of the world where some of the most ruthless rulers have been in power for decades, and whose people have been exposed to some of the toughest and most undemocratic regimes, mass communication through the Internet has played a significant role in shaking up the palaces of these brute leaders.
People have come to more easily understand one another’s circumstances and, as a result, have come to break their silence.
Simply said, people are now capable of not only being aware of their outside world, but to also communicate with it, and to do so with relative ease. Technology has enabled these civilians to inform the world of their situation.
It should be noted that the type of behavior presented in Libya, for example, by Colonel Gaddafi in the form of fierce and brutal crackdowns is nothing new to the region.
The difference now is that the killing of protestors on the streets of Tripoli or Cairo is captured by cameras and is very quickly posted up on Youtube for the world to see, whereas in the past, hundreds of these stories went untold.
Social networking sites have played a key role in helping demonstrators organize rallies, and as a result have turned rallies into full-fledged revolutions. In essence, they have very successfully taken the fear out of the people and instead placed it within their leaders.
Even in states where leaders have held on to power, such as Iran or Libya, the excessive level of force demonstrated through mass arrests, executions and anti-demonstration crackdowns is a vivid demonstration of their fear and anxiety.
Many have concluded that one of the prime reasons for the success of mass uprisings have been the governments underestimating such tools as social networking sites.
In my opinion, such claims hold little water and the proof for this are events in Egypt. Egyptian authorities aimed at disabling such tools by blocking Facebook and Google. Both internally and externally, however, such barricades were easily and quickly broken.
Internally, proxy websites began appearing which made the use of these sites possible.
Externally, Google provided 1-800-numbers for Egyptians to call and update with news and receive the latest news. It is true that the governments of the region perhaps underestimated the power of mass communication — as did many others around the world — but even when they decided to take action, there was very little they could do.
Perhaps ‘Facebook’ will grow up in a far different Middle East than her parents, or perhaps she will grow up in one quite similar to theirs.
Regardless of what the long-term outcomes of these uprisings are, one thing is for certain: the leaders of the Middle East have learned that the world is becoming a very small place; big brother has become the people of the world and the people of the world are indeed watching scrupulously.
As such, ‘Facebook’ and her future friends have a lot owing to Facebook and its digital friends.