Essay 2: Final Draft

Mary Anne Marrero 
 Mr. Hayes 
Eng 100 - 1:10

3/4/13 
Word Count: 1390

Social Media and its Worth

        Ever since the day when social media was established with the help of the famous World Wide Web, its popularity and demand has continually been growing along with the people from time to time. It is known very well as a way of interacting, sharing ideas, and connecting virtually with the presence of modern technology. By reading three opinion columns based upon the issue on whether or not social media carries an effective role for social and political transformation, I was able to distinguish which among them shows the most convincing view. The two columns done by Simon Mainwaring and S. Craig Watkins seem to share a common side of the issue praising the compelling role of social media to the people of Egypt, while the other column by Parves Sharma takes it to the opposing side claiming that people shouldn’t make a big deal out of these social networks because it doesn’t take “much” to spur a spark into the Egyptian nation. Although they all have provided unique claims, Watkins’ argument appears to be the most effective because of his comprehensive presentation of the evidences and refutations to prove his claim; the two other writers, Mainwaring and Sharma, failed to address other testimonies aside from their own justification, which made their arguments a bit biased and less persuasive than that of Watkins’.

        In Watkins’ article Social Media Have Been Powerful Tools in Organizing Egypt’s Revolution, he argues that social media has indeed, been effective tools in systemizing the protests in Egypt. He points out that, “While social media was not the catalyst of the Egyptian protest, it was certainly a tool for mobilizing protest.”  Although social media is not the root cause for all these social movements that happened in Egypt, it has served as a big help for propelling the people with power and their rights to speak freely against the political situation. In this statement, he gives an impartial, yet a stronger approach on the issue by considering both his point and what others may have in mind. To further address his first point, he includes another statement in his article by saying, “Twitter and Facebook did not start the revolution, but they did help generations of Egyptians realize a world that not that long ago would have been impossible to imagine.” Not to sound biased with his work to that of the other two, Mainwaring and Sharma, but I admittedly like how he gives out a fair concept between two opposing ideas. With these social networking sites, people get to connect, share videos, and increase more awareness among other people regardless of race, religion, and social beliefs. Even though he has not witnessed the uprising nor was he part of the regime, he assumes based on his own perspective that there is, in fact, a huge role of social media which I find to be true as well. 

       Also, Watkins adds more effectiveness to his claim by including relevant data and evidence such as the estimated number of Facebook accounts in Egypt, as well as relevant data for other related social networks. He doesn’t just base his argument merely on his own judgments; he actually seeks out for viewpoints of other people to give out a wider outlook on the argument of whether or not social media has been an effective tool for organizing social movements. He conducted an interview with a man from Tahir who has witnessed the uprising. According to his findings, “Facebook emerged as an efficient way to coordinate and organize protestors.” This statement provided by an outside source makes his argument appear more convincing and authentic than the others because he is not only speaking based on his own assumption, but also from other personal mindsets on the issue which the other two writers seemed to be lacking. Even though I question whether the source of his evidence is credible or not, I still find it to be an additional source that would add up to the stronger evidences for his claim. In my opinion, I think that these protesters should take advantage from social media because it is one way of raising awareness and for other people around the world to reach out to them or share their insights to the condition in Egypt. Not only do they contribute to the demand for transformation, but also lessen the violence caused by protesting on the streets.

       The other articles done by Mainwaring and Sharma didn’t show much proof to effectively convince their audience. In an article Social Media Empower People by Simon Mainwaring, he argues that the uses of these social-network tools are without any doubt, the fundamental part of people’s power to overthrow the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. He mentions in his column that, “social media is important because of the infinitely scalable connectivity it enables,” All throughout his argument, he only uses one main aspect of social media to prove why his opinion is deserves to be true and that is the “connectivity” it enables. On the article Social Media Did Not Cause the Egyptian Revolution, he claims that social media wasn’t the reason

behind political regime in Egypt, especially because of the lack of technological knowledge in the country. Their arguments may be tolerable however; I think that these two writers based their arguments only through their own perspective – disregarding other refutations that come along the way. Another statement in Sharma’s work which I find to be overall-biased is when he says, “a pretty substantial number of them have NEVER used the Internet and do not have email accounts. The complicated mechanisms of self-promotion and information gathering and sharing on social networks are not a part of their lives.” I find this statement on Sharma’s work to be very one-sided. He only assumes these pieces of information based on what he knows and he only limits it to that. To me, I don’t think it’s fair to say that this revolution is only limited to those living in Egypt and that it is not enough for a number of people to ignite a protest through social media and take it to next level, because the possibility of having these social movements also depends on the people regardless of the number involved. He doesn’t show effective rebuttals or even objections in his argument which makes his work the least convincing among all three columns.

        Comparing the two columns to that of the most convincing, Watkins talks about the role of Twitter in the Egyptian revolution, how one person could take a stand, inform others about the events that were taking place, and how Twitter served as a way for other people to follow along and communicate. He mentions that, “a twenty-one year old woman who goes by the Twitter name @alya1989262” created a hash tag purposely for the Egyptian protests. Interestingly enough, Watkins was able to provide a more specific detail as to how this social and political uprising benefited from the presence of social media. More evidence was shown, thus making his work more unambiguous than those of Mainwaring and Sharma’s works.

     Nevertheless, Simon Mainwaring’s claim seems capable of addressing the other refutations and I do agree with his statement that, “social media provides a complex and deep infrastructure perfect for the activist processes of social transformation.” However, I don’t think he was able to come up with a more concrete reason to refute a counter-argument, opposing his claim. He could have provided more relevant evidence and reasons to prove his argument. Although he acknowledges the importance of social media to the protesters, he could have done a better job in proving his claim.

       Among the three columns, Watkins’ work emerges to be the most convincing of them all because of his effective reasoning and absolute refutations. I think that social media does contribute to social and political transformation. In a technologically-dependent world, we are all entitled to these social media tools that haven’t even existed twenty years ago. Some people would say that it isn’t effective enough as compared to campaigning and protesting on the streets, but I think that these tools are made to improve our ways of connecting with the world. It is one way to raise more awareness about a nation, even to people from the other side of the world to where we stand.

 Works Cited:

          Mainwaring, Simon. "Social Media Empower People." The Global Impact of Social Media. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Egypt, Malcolm Gladwell and Social Media as a Life or Death Proposition." http://socialmediatoday.com. 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 4 Feb. 2013.

         Sharma, Parvez. "Social Media Did Not Cause the Egyptian Revolution." The Global Impact of Social Media. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Egypt Is Burning, and It Is Not a Facebook or Twitter Event." Huffington Post. 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 7 Feb. 2013.

        Watkins, S. Craig. "Social Media Have Been Powerful Tools in Organizing Egypt's Revolution." Politics and the Media. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Social Movements in the Age of Social Media: Participatory Politics in Egypt." The Young and the Digital. 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.