In addition, Twitter’s short format makes it easy to rapidly communicate warnings and messages. In Tunisia, while rioters were clashing with police, tweets via cell phone warned of snipers and called for help. “Twitter a ma sauve mi vie”—“Twitter saved my life," a man told French reporters. Focusing on the cell phones with the latest technology and how connected they are to the Internet and SMS, with a little imagination it becomes clear that in the hands of a large number of highly motivated people, this is a very powerful tool. Powerful enough to, say, topple a government. The concept and implications in dozens of places around the world, particularly now, is staggering.
In North America and Western Europe perhaps we don’t always stretch our imagination beyond what electronics have to offer for commercial and personal use. It’s both an exciting and terrifying realization to see its potential unleashed.
Article comments
1 - roger nowosielski
Terrifying to whom, Birgit? You don't say.
2 - birgit nazarian
For me Roger, it's the power of it that's terrifying. Once the movement gets started, by whatever means, in this case, it's grown so large, the control is in flux. Just because a movement starts out as a popular movement on a social networking site doesn't mean that radical groups won't hijack it once it's in the streets.