New Revolutions: A Revolutionary Change of Conventional Revolutions

A personal Account of The 25 of January Uprising

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Case Scenarios, grade: A., The American University in Cairo, language: English, abstract: Let's get one thing straight, The Egyptian revolution was not a Facebook revolution. Was Facebook immensely important? Yes. Was it the catalyst? Maybe. But that is as far as those assumptions can go. Social media today has no longer become just another pastime. Websites like twitter and facebook have now become a way of living rather than a hobby or interest. Ask yourself this, why was the government's first plan of defense to shut down the internet connection and phone lines? Why was a people's revolution unprecedented in the past given the simple term of a 'Facebook Revolution'? To answer these questions one must look at the power and momentum of social media in Egypt, the transformation of social media like facebook and twitter from places of expression to sites of political organizing. To understand this revolution one must engage the political situation that bloggers and mass public alike have been surviving for so long.