Weighing the Limitations Against the Added-Value of Social Media as a Tool for Political Change

Social media is helping to revolutionize revolution. Innovation has always been a salient ingredient in any people-driven movement for political change. In this day of Internet domination however, technological developments are reframing the way people think about their public personas and their responsibility to their community as well as to the world. The difference between the existence and absence of social media and new technologies however is not equivalent to the lack of motivation for change or the lack of consciousness that the system in place is inadequate or somehow producing injustice. Rather, the existence of social media and its wide accessibility can result in a faster rate of public demands met or at the very least a greater awareness by a wider range of people. And yet, the use of social media for political mobilization is by no means a foolproof tactic, nor is technology a guarantor of change. As this paper will argue, new technologies, particularly social media, are both a catalyst for democratic reform as well as an instrument to aid more traditional methods of protest and civil resistance.