That dramatic video was uploaded just minutes ago by AlJazeeraEnglish on YouTube and from a camcorder used just over an hour ago. Twitter's Top Trends list "Congrats Egypt" among the list as this is written. And again and again, Eqyptian protest groups were organized using the social network called Facebook as a base. And when that wasn't the case, the focal point was a blog, most notably, the Young Leaders Social Media Cafe.
The dramatic announcement that after three-decades of rule, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek (really a dictator more than what we think of when the title "President" is used) has stepped down and given way to a new, free Egypt, is both pleasing and shocking. It gives us pause and causes us to look back at what we've created: this giant and growing "digital mirror" on World industrial society. And we're asking ourselves "Do we like we see," and in many cases, we're saying "NO!"
The fall of a dictatorship in Egypt is perhaps the best example of our desire to change ourselves to date. But we can't ignore the impact of digital communications and social media: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs on Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr (to name some of the platforms), and photo sharing sites like Flickr.
Wow, what a day. What a time to be alive!
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