January 2011 – Nina Mehta

Twitter did not go to Tunisia and tell people to revolt. Last September I asked about power in the information age. Who has it? And what is it? If we can get access to nearly all common and not-so-common knowledge, instantly, is knowledge power? Indulge with me for a moment, and let’s say no, knowledge is no longer power. Then is our network the power?

Someone who is connected to a listening audience, who is connected to a listening audience, who is connected to a listening audience is quite powerful. That has always been powerful, but now nearly anyone with a tether to the digital world can be any of those someones. And they have the potential to be quite powerful figures. Save of course that these “powerful figures” are not always recognized as such because they flow in and out of the role as a leader if you consider Ben Schniederman’s theories about consumers and producers online.

The revolution was not tweeted. The revolutionaries in Tunisia were just on Twitter. They spread their ideas fast which got them up, out and in the way faster. Twitter just made it easier for the People to say, “Listen to us, now.”

Matthew Igram via GigaOm writes

But is anyone really arguing that Twitter and Facebook caused the revolutions in Tunisia or Egypt, or even the earlier public uprisings in Moldova or Iran for that matter? Maybe cyber-utopians somewhere are doing this, but I haven’t seen or heard of any. The argument I have tried to make is simply that they and other social media tools can be incredibly powerful, both for spreading the word — which can give moral or emotional support to others in a country, as well as generating external support — as well as for organizational purposes, thanks to the power of the network. As Jared Cohen of Google Ideas put it, social media may not be a cause, but it can be a powerful “accelerant.”

Did Twitter or Facebook cause the Tunisian revolt? No. But they did spread the news, and many Tunisian revolutionaries gave them a lot of credit for helping with the process. Did Twitter cause the revolts in Egypt? No. But they did help activists such as WikiLeaks supporter Jacob Appelbaum (known on Twitter as @ioerror) and others as they organized the dialup and satellite phone connections that created an ad-hoc Internet after Egypt turned the real one off — which, of course, it did in large part to try and prevent demonstrators from using Internet-based tools to foment unrest. As Cory Doctorow noted in his review of Evgeny Morozov’s book, even if Twitter and Facebook are just used to replace the process of stapling pieces of paper to telephone poles and sending out hundreds of emails, they are still a huge benefit to social activism of all kinds.

In October, Gladwell said the revolution would not be tweeted. He said our thousands of weak ties won’t make change happen. Soon after, I questioned the power of (Facebook’s) algorithm that aims to reduce information overload and weed out irrelevant content. Doing this, however, there’s no way to protect yourself from over tweeting. The conversation is always streaming and always linear. So then, if you tweet often are you more likely to get ignored or at least get some views.

It depends if you’re a loud, verbose person at a loud party or a quiet person, at a quiet party, saying one, striking thing every so often. The problem here is that everyone is at a different party. Then why, if everyone is at a different party, did the demonstrators catch word so fast?

It’s the two-step flow, 2.0. The beautiful flow of information that embraces the idea of human agency to share knowledge and information. But now, unlike ever before, anyone has the potential to have the power the mass media once had.

We can’t help but keep asking if participating in social media is activism. Does changing a Facebook Status or Twitter profile picture make a difference? Some argue it brings awareness to an issue. But it’s passive activism, it’s enough to get points for “caring” about an issue for a fleeting trend.

Why then is a riot, a protest or a lunch counter sit in considered considered activism, when it too, is also just spreading awareness about an issue? Because it causes disruption. The actions do not ask the community to stop what they are doing and pay attention, they require it. It gets in the way, it upsets people and it makes people talk about the problem.

No. The revolution will not be tweeted. No the revolution was not tweeted. But yes, our new tools inspired conversation that empowered people to put the problem in the way. Whether or not that is Good is another question.

The revolution happened on the streets.

All was quiet on the digital front. I spent 33 days in Botswana and South Africa detached from email and completely disconnected from Facebook and Twitter. Try it.

People I know who go to Afrika seem to consistently have “life changing, inspiring, indescribable” experiences. I did too, which is a little boring for you, the reader. I went with dear friend, Sam who is preparing her PhD Thesis in HCI. I like to say she’s studying the ways we, try to develop Afrika with Western technology culture, thereby screwing up. I was visiting my lifelong friend Peter (below) who is living in Gaborone, Botswana and doing research, I suppose, for my thesis.

We did not go to Afrika to ride in wooden boats and see animals. We did not go to “fix the aids problem” and we did not exit through the gift shop.

We did what what we do when we go anywhere. We hopped the velvet ropes and went to Afrika to meet people. We walked the pace of their life as best we could and learned about humanity, exploration and ourselves.

Kind new friends granted us Setswana names. Sam’s name, Botho, loosely means humanness, with respect, dignity and kindess. My non-traditional hair, colour and features gave me the name Bontle: beautiful.

I’ve been to India more times than I can count. It’s hot, noisy, crowded and not very safe, kind of like all the places we went in Botswana and South Africa. When I go to India, I cannot wake up and think, “I’d like to walk East today and maybe, possibly visit this part of the city,” knowing full well I’ll get distracted, make two friends along the way and discover something I could not have even known existed. I can’t go on that walk when staying with my grandparents. But there is nowhere else in the universe I can hear the stories they have to tell.

But Sam and I did that wanderlust traveling. One day we even wandered our way all the way to the top of Kgale Hill.

We wandered our way into a drum circle. Moving by and with music is the only way I know how to listen. I started playing music before I could write a sentence, as one should. Without an exchange a single word, I hopped into a drum circle ont he street with my new friends. They taught me their beats, their rhythms, their language, without a word: and we jammed.

Sometimes, we rode in the back of a pickup truck. Why? Because that’s how we got around the village. Ask me know long we knew the people driving the truck. 2 minutes. Ask me if we actually knew them. We didn’t. Ask me if we were hitchhiking. We weren’t. Because if we were, my friends would probably get fired from their job–not that there was any other option.

But us two Londoners at heart, flew through our city and indulged in Wagamama that otherwise only seemed to exist in dreams. We stopped in Heathrow, in the city where I spent so many days of my life, wandering around, looking for something more and finding it. It was city that taught me how to do it on my own, and there I was back again.

I’ll tell you this, though. The Batswana people can cook but it’s near impossible to get an invitation over for dinner–unless you make the right friends. If someone can teach me to make chicken, squash or collard greens like this, please leave a comment.

And Zac was with us. He was here from Uganda. And needless to say, like us, he made a new friend everywhere he went.

Sam and I did take some time apart. We both jumped, well, tumbled, or fell, really, out of an airplane 10,000 feet above the Earth at the Southern most tip of Africa. It took me 7 pages of free writing to begin processing the rest of my life after that moment.

I’m back home now, zero feet away from the Earth. Driving my car instead of taking the combi.

I’m back home now, where the white people are not people donning a “white face” parade costume.

I’m back home now, where I am not ordering ostrich, kudu, springbok or crocodile to eat.

I’m back home now, very far from a huge body of water.

I am back home now, where the roads are roads and the roads are clean.

But, I love where I live. And I might not ever eat a leg of chicken and dance at the same time again. But, I’ll have done it.

We are grateful for all the real friendships we made and opportunities to experience a Southern Afrikan lifestyle as best we could. This is 2% how I spent one of the most enlightening months of my life.