Social Media Aiding Dictators?
I thought today’s TED talk in class was intriguing, for I never thought to pair social media and dictatorship. On many occasions I have read articles that people wrote to express their negative opinions about social networking in general, but providing evidence that it assists dictators brings it to an entirely new level.
Evgeny Morozov began to speak, but it took me a while to fully understand what his argument was. Maybe this was because of his thick accent, or maybe the unfamiliar topic he was addressing, or maybe even something completely different than either of those. Who knows, but that’s besides the point. Once I realized his topic of conversation my thoughts began to circulate regarding this surprising stance. I constantly hear of social media politically assisting the minority groups, because online, substantially more voices are expressed, and thus, heard. Because it was all I had ever studied, I took it to be true, but now I am reconsidering how social media plays a role in political activity around the globe.
Morozov seemed pretty adamant that social media is generally a negative tool when it comes to politics, what do you think? Does the bad outweigh the good, or vice versa?
