Surprise, Surprise The ERevolution Is Here!

I have never before understood the catastrophic impact that social media has had on the world until reading the online article titled, The ERevolution (http://www.famousbloggers.net/the-erevolution.html). The article takes the reader through the beginning, ending, and middle of the Egyptian Revolution that took place in January of this year. I was blown away when I read that the entire revolt began, was organized through, and fueled by Facebook groups and Twitter posts!

Unhappy activists created Facebook groups and coordinated their idea's through comments and Twitter posts . The posts were calling for national action for all citizens to protest for freedom, reform, and social justice from the Egyptian regime.  As stated in the article above, the Facebook group grew to over 80,000 members! The immense amount of supporters and the speed at which these groups gained momentum, left no doubt that the protest that would later take place would be colossal in size.

The regime took notice of the social media fire that was crowding their streets full of protesters and began making attempts to shut down internet communication lines. First, by blocking Twitter and Facebook. The younger generation of protesters were much more technologically coherent and easily found ways to bypass the filters. Officials next, shut off all cell phone service in Egypt's major cities. They were trying anything to slow the rush of people onto their streets. It was not until I read the next part of this article that I realized how big of a role social media was playing in the boiling of the revolt. The regime shut down all internet access in all of Egypt! This was the "first Internet blackout of such magnitude in the history of the internet!" The persistent crowd of activist could still not be stopped from communicating through the internet. Dial-up land lines, faxes, and a new service that had been launched by Google called "speak2tweet" allowed the Egyptians to communicate to mass groups. The enormous sea of protesters throughout Egypt grew to somewhere between five and eight million citizens strong during the eighteen day's of demonstrations.

After numerous days of protesting and continuously increasing numbers, on February 11, 2011 President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his position, granting Egyptian citizens their freedom. The success of the protests and ultimately Egypt's release from President Mubaraks rule was the result of massive efforts through social media outlets. It amazes me how much social networking has grown in such a short matter of time and how many amazing ways it has already been utilized for.