Is Twitter Really a Revolution?
Social Media has definitely helped spread news of revolutions but it is unclear to me just how much it has helped in the actual push for change. Personally, I have become very much aware of revolutions and new ideas due to their appearances and spread via social media. While this spread has made me understand their cause and agree with it, it has not necessarily made me actively engage in the revolution apart from reading and sharing posts on my social media accounts. While my sharing and reading of new ideas is beneficial for a cause, it does not significantly further the cause because the post does not encourage me enough to hit the ground running and take to the streets with my ideas, and the act of sharing these ideas makes me feel like I have done my small part, however unjustified that is.
The strong tie phenomenon made a lot of sense to me. While there are many issues that I and others feel strongly about, there is a lot more presence surrounding these issues on social media than people you see at actual rallies and protests. I think it takes even more than a personal connection to the issue being discussed, I think it takes a personal connection to the people leading the revolution or the community in which it is taking place. Social media does not hurt revolutions in my opinion. I think that people like Mckesson and Elzie are doing an important part in aiding the revolution by sharing their message with the public. However, I do not think twitter is enough to make revolutionary changes. I think it helps get people talking and makes people more aware of their cause, but I think the real change will come from the people on the ground protesting and actively pursuing change.
When it comes to Unicode I do not understand why it is that common characters from popular languages are not included. We live in a very globalized society and it is extremely backward to include these characters. While emojis are fun I do not understand why we are devoting time to creating new emojis when there are more pressing characters that need to be included.
