Roy Alexander Mercon

Regardless of whether you've been living under the proverbial rock, if you find yourself in the 'civilized' world, you've been exposed to digital media, and the uppercuts they have had on traditional and cultural expectations. Everything, from the way we communicate, to the way we educate our children, and even how we think has been fundamentally altered in this new age of pixel-people. As is expected, the youth of today are not the youth of yesterday though the basics of human social interaction are still in place. Today, to be 'cool' is to have (and influence- see Klout) more 'followers' than everyone else. The more influence you have in the digital world, the more likely real-world changes will happen (Kony 2012 is a prime example of this). Though some critics argue that digital media does more harm than good on an individual level, the benefits of 21st century social media platforms like Facebook (and others, including twitter, foursquare, tumblr and the like) will continue to push grassroots activists (and their opposition) to utilize digital media to meet their various objectives.

Though we haven't talked about it in class, Fold@Home is a wonderful example of how the many can become one in order to end a crises, in this case Alzheimer's, Huntington's and many forms of cancer. Using “thousands of personal computers and playstation3s” Folding@Home uses a concept known as '*distributed computing*' to coordinate with these machines to “preform simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics” - in essence, help find a cure for these diseases. 

Once the program has been downloaded, it runs in the background, taking advantage of the time you are not on your computer (think screensaver) to preform these simulations. While not exactly the Cognitive Surplus that Shirky imagined in his book, He hit the nail on the head when he said that “Given the right opportunities, humans will start behaving in new ways” (Shirky, 100), which in this case means giving up your computer's memory whilst you are not using it and contributing to the greater good.

If you are going to be in the forefront of a major grassroots activism campaign, especially one in Egypt, expect your opposition to come after you. Governments are traditionally not 'in the know' when it comes to social norms (case in point, the average age of a members in both houses of Congress is 58.2 years), and people will always fear something they don't understand. During the time of Mubarak, the Egyptian Government took advantage of their inability to join their opposition online by attempting to behead the movement, kidnapping Wael Ghonim and imprisoning him. “Suddenly three men jumped me from behind. 'Shut up, you scoundrel!' came a harsh voice. 'don't you dare let out a sound.” One of the men reported through a radio transmitter, 'It's done, sir. We're ready.'”(Ghonim, 197) This would undoubtedly be a check in the 'perils' column for grassroots activism. However, depending on how your particular revolution/protest/other form of activism is doing, if your opposition isn't after you, your impact might not be as big as you had hoped. As Rachel Dawes so eloquently put it to Harvey Dent in the movie 'The Dark Knight' “Harvey, you're Gotham's D.A. If you aren't getting shot at, you aren't doing your job.”

It is assumed to be a common belief that if there is a group out there stealing kids from their homes and forcing them to kill their parents and whoever else they are told to, it's a bad thing. Stopping JosephKony, said to be the leader of such a group, has been Invisible Children's goal for a number of years. Most recently, they gave the world a new phenomenon to talk about, by way of a video released online, called KONY 2012. Billed the best example of how something on the Internet can go viral, this video received 89 Million views as of this writing. No matter how one feels about the politics and rumors surrounding this cultural moment, including funding issues and the mental status of Invisible Children's leader, the sheer number of views meant success for this organization.

What does 89 million views on an 'over-simplified' version of a complex issue contribute? Joseph Kony has yet to be found. The follow-up to the KONY 2012 video has received only two million views, giving rise to the idea that this video was a one-hit viral wonder. Their planned massive movement 'Cover The Night' had minimal success. It seems that the damage made to the organization's credibility was enough to stifle (i.e. kill) the growth of their influence. Unless they can preform a quick 180, I'll bet the next time we see KONY 2012 is in the end-of-the-year edition of Time.

When grassroots activists fight for likes, +1s, comments or follows, they are contributing to the permanent mental change of civilization, according to Nicholas Carr. With the Internet being a forum for those seeking change, and he who is loudest wins, “There is no Sleepy Hollow in the Internet, no peaceful spot where contemplativeness can work its restorative magic. There is only the endless, mesmerizing buss of the urban street. The stimulations of the Net, like those of the city, can be invigorating and inspiring. But they are, as well, exhausting and distracting.” (Carr, 220). This gives rise to the argument that, although there are millions of likes on Facebook for an activist organization, how many people are going to leave the confines of other homes and actually attend a rally? #Occupy is a great example. There is an outpouring of support for those encamped online, however the amount of actual Occupiers is dwindling by the day. Everyone is talking the talk, but very few are walking the walk.

The effects of Occupy are not lost due to the lack of physical bodies on the streets, however. Last year, when Bank of America imposed a $5fee debit fee, the company quickly changed its tune due to “*negative customer feedback*”. There are those that claim the 'customer feedback' was due to Occupy's 'Invest in Main Street, not Wall Street” campaign, telling those that would listen to move their money away from big banks that make record profits on the backs of those struggling to get by. This campaign was given serious strength by social media, namely Twitter, where the stream of tweets with #Occupy (or something similar) looked more like a waterfall. #Occupy at least had one real-world, tangible success.

Rock or not, digital media has changed the world we all live in, whether we care to admit it or not. The youth of today are starting to seriously harness the power that social media can have on public policy, and it is safe to say that the future generations, with all of their techno-wizardry and such will be able to enact change faster and more efficiently, like a machine using the machine. It is an unfortunate truth that, for the foreseeable future, those with wealth have the saying power to weather the storm of peaceful digital revolution. This possibility will not stop those with a vision in attempting to try. As the saying goes, 'the power of the people is greater than the people in power.'