Social Media: Making Protests Heard Around the World

Social media has been such an important part of all the protests that have taken place around the world. One of the first was all the protesting done during and after the Iran election. Since then, all the revolutionary movements that have taken place around the world have been caught on social media sites such as Twitter and Youtube for all to see.
The growth of social media has enabled anyone with a smart phone, digital camera, or just a computer and an internet connection to become a journalist. (for better or worse) Some of the footage that the amateurs have caught has then been picked up by mainstream media. Such footage picked up by bigger media outlets include a woman being shot at a protest in Iran and police brutality around the world.
Much mainstream media has given much attention to the protests in other countries. Yet, when it comes to the Occupy America protests, they are barely being acknowledged. CNN, for example, did not have any front page coverage on their website at the time of this writing. This is no problem for the amateur journalists, however, who are determined to get their word out.
Since before it was created, the Occupy movement has advertised and gained likes on Facebook. They also have their own Twitter streams with constant updates and retweets. Videos are always being uploaded on video sharing sites such as Youtube and pictures are being taken all over the place.
Looking at the impact of social media has shown a different perspective since the protests are more local than the overseas protests. Not only has social media been a media outlet for the people, it has also come into the rescue to keep the events going as intended. There have been tweets requesting food donations for the demonstrators, ponchos for when it began to pour rain all over them, and even external hard drives so they can keep live coverage of the Occupy Boston event going so the world can see. Apparently social media is doing the work those tweets were hoping for. There is still live streaming video, one man showed up today with a pickup truck full of bottled water, and restaurants answered the call for food by donating food.
Every time there is a huge event where social media is used to impact it, a new benefit of social media is seen. In the Occupy America protests as well as the revolutions in the Middle East, people are of different cultures and backgrounds. But one thing that everyone has in common is a need for the average person not to be taken advantage of by a select few. THe voice of individualism is speaking out. Thanks to social media, it is no longer being ignored.

Starbucks barista fired over parody song

Based on Chris's attitude, I think he did not care if people saw the video. He just did not expect it to go viral, and he certainly did not expect to get fired. But let this be a lesson for others.

Starbucks Management Side

Do not rely on managers at work to have a sense of humor. Managers are not the most common of people. The higher up people are in management, the worse it gets. Put yourself in the mind of a manager for a moment. The picture that should come to mind is Scrooge counting stacks of money not caring about the world. If he sees a video like this, he is going to think "Now my customers are going to think twice about coming to my store for fear my staff is thinking bad of them, the store will lose money, and I will not be able to take that extra vacation or buy that new car I've been working for!"

Chris' Side

Personally, I've never had a problem with Starbucks employees. They have always been nice and professional. However, I've also worked in the food industry before, and it is stressful dealing with the various personalities of customers in your face, coworkers, and maybe at times an angry manager. Whether he did it spur of the moment or it was premeditated, Chris just wanted to let off frustration. There are worse things he could have done.

Hindsight is 20/20

Anything uploaded to the internet can be shared. It is best not to upload anything that could haunt you online such as incriminating photos or videos. However, sometimes people just have to let go. And yes, the United States of America has a freedom of speech law that people like to tamper with sometimes. So let's compromise. In the case of work, people would likely not tell off a manager or customer. So don't do it online. Things can still be uploaded but the creator must edit the security settings so the content can only be viewed by certain people. If content is more private, there i a less of a chance for it to go viral and end up on the 11 o'clock news. And creators are less likely to lose their job.

But, yes, there is always a but. Even if a creator edits the security settings, the website is the one in charge of the security. What if the website breaks if a new snippet of code is put out? Suddenly the content may go public for people to see. So there is always a risk unless people just do not do crazy things. Perhaps it is better just to share possible questionable content with a few people who will not snitch. Aside from not doing this content at all, this might be the better-at least until someone once perceived as not a snitch thinks you have the ost awesome idea ever and decides to upload it himself or forward it to his buddies.

Why not just grab a few beers after work and let off steam like people did before they had Youtube? Geeesh!

if Facebook and Twitter had been around on 9/11

As I lay my head down to sleep, it is almost 9/12, the day after the tenth anniversary of 9/11. A random thought popped into my mind about how powerful Facebook and Twitter are when it comes to any disaster. What if they had been around on 9/11/2001?
Like many, I was headed to work when the first tower fell. I got to work just in time to see the second tower fall. Since that moment, the world was glued to the internet to find the latest news. Back then, people had to go to each website and constantly hit the refresh button. If one was lucky, they had someone on Yahoo Messenger from that area who could possibly provide an eyewitness account of what was happening live.
Now, when a big event happens, it has been proven time and time again that people turn to social media in order to get live updates. One of the first of this kind was the Virginia Tech shooting a few years ago. People could update their Facebook statuses and let families and friends know that they were ok. During the military base shooting spree in Texas a couple of years ago, people on base could give firsthand accounts of what was taking place or where the shooter was. During the deadly earthquake in Haiti, there was hash tags dedicated to people trying to see if anyone in the "Twitterverse" knew their whereabouts and if they were ok.
This is totally hindsight looking back with 20/20 vision here. But social networking during another (God forbid) attack would be a good tool. Information is refreshed automatically and it is more centralized, meaning one doesn't have to open multiple browsers in order to get information. People will update their Facebook statuses or tweet information as it is happening. On a more serious note, people are connected so people can ask within their online network if someone was ok.
The only drawback to all of this is that social media runs on the internet. It is only powerful if cell phone service or Wi-Fi networks do not go down. On 9/11, for example, the entire internet was slow and the cell phone networks were hard to get through due to higher than average usage. Yes, social media is very powerful and will be used over again for every big event. But we need to make sure that the technology behind social media can withstand the effects that social media has made on our society.