How Twitter Has Made a Difference
By Shea Garner
Dirty hippies. Lazy post-grads. A protest with no goals—call it what you want. Wherever your political alliances lie, one thing is for sure: Occupy Wall Street is a movement.
The current cultural phenomenon that is Occupy Wall Street has gained much momentum in the past month. And much of that momentum couldn’t have been produced without the Internet. These aren’t the days where Hugh Hefner could hustle a bunch of Playboys out of the back of a pickup truck; this is 2011.
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET was the hashtag that started it all, generated from the @OccupyWallStNYC twitter account. The tweet stated “Sept. 17th. Bring Tent,” and linked to an Adbusters poster promoting the event.
Interestingly enough, mainstream media shyed away from covering the beginnings of the protest. The word spread through Twitter and other social media, garnering the attention of political musicians like Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) and Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel) to play at the protests, among other celebrities.
As the Occupy Protests spread to more cities across the world, the influence of the Internet and social media networks are much apparent. Whether you are part of the 99% struggling financially, the 1% flourishing in your penthouse, or the “53% working hard and paying taxes,” you are getting noticed.
Governments in other countries have shut down networks to stop word from spreading, but the CEO of Twitter has made the promise that it won’t happen to his site. The most important lesson to learn is that tweeting can make a difference, whether you’re complaining about your Pumpkin Spice Latte or the state of the economy itself.
What are your thoughts on Occupy Wall Street? Do social media networks influence news or current events? Let us know in the comments section below.