#Occupy

Hey Guys,

Sorry I haven't written recently, I'll try to write a bit more often now I'm on holiday for two weeks.

Anyway unless you have been on a desert island or in North Korea for the last year you will know that it has all kicked off.

It started in the middle east with the Arab Spring, there some people in North Africa and the middle east decided that they wanted to choose how they were ruled, most of them had had the same guy in the top job for over 30 years or more so wanted to give someone else a chance. So they protested and fought to choose their leader, though most only got government changes, some counties like Tunisia and Egypt had revolutions and Libya is only just coming out of a civil war.

Then in May young people in Spain, angry about unemployment, how their government worked and the influence of banks, camped out in Madrid's main square to protest. They stayed there in their thousands protesting in the Puerta del Sol square in the centre of Madrid.

Now in the last week or so in cities around the world have seen protests about the influence of large corporate organisations on government and wealth inequality. Based on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York protesters "occupy" financial districts, sleeping rough in parks and squares to demonstrate their opposition to government corruption.


So what caused all this restlessness and dissatisfaction? Firstly since the global economic recession there have been a lot of unemployed educated young people with a lot of free time on their hands and not much money, this alone is enough to cause protests. Secondly the thing that allowed the protests to spread around the world and topple governments is... the internet. All of these protests have been organised or inspired to a greater or lesser degree by the internet. Protesters meet, plan and gain support for their protests through social media.

That is what allowed Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans, who were oppressed and voiceless for many years to rise up and overthrow their governments. Social media allowed individual dissidents to unite and showed people that they were not alone and could demand change, no longer isolated under fear of the consequences of speaking out, but united and protesting.

Protesters in other countries can see what other people are doing and copy, this is one of the reasons the occupy protest have spread around the world so quickly. Social media has also allowed protesters to organise and mobilise quickly so protests can now start as easily as flash mobs rather than long planed marches organised by unions or other organisation.

One of the most important effects social media has had on protesting though is that there is now no need for any leader. Before social media protests were organised and led by a small group of people  shouting at others, now they are organised by networks with lots of people giving input making the protests larger and more flexible.

Social media has changed the way people protest, though the protests themselves are essentially the same, the way they are organised and led has been changed completely. No longer do they have to be marches organised by union officials in one city but can be spontaneous, flexible and global. Social Media can unite people who before lived in fear of talking out and inspire people to speak out against injustice and inequality when before they never knew about .

Thanks for reading and I hope you've found this interesting, if you've liked this share this with your friends,

Adiós, please comment with any thoughts,

Dan  :)

P.S.

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