Many of my friends claimed that the revolution in Egypt was a Facebook or Twitter revolution. This belief has spread so far that many Indians have notched up their participation on social networking sites in hopes of revolution (revolution who?) Well, as a matter of fact, 17% of Egyptians have internet access which was severely blocked during the revolution. Egyptian revolution was 'not' a social media-inspired revolution.
The revolution didn’t happen because one morning a guy in Egypt woke up and said "Ah! Nice morning, I have nothing better to do, so let’s get rid of our government". He started a Twitter thread and Facebook community and Hosni Mubarak was gone. Pyramids were not built in a day! The protests were the result of 30 years of repression, economic shackles, rampant corruption and the inability of Egyptians to meet aspirations of a better tomorrow.
Ever since president Obama won elections in the US, the power of the social media to garner support for a cause has been talked about. In India's last general election, the most visible online campaign was ‘LK Advani for Prime Minister campaign’. Why did that become a failure? There are numerous campaigns on Facebook that people 'like' and forget. How many of those cvauses get a genuine support?
Media does not bring changes. Individuals do. Tool should never be mistaken with the outcome. Just because you have a computer at home, doesn’t make you a programmer!