As the turmoil in Egypt continues, and as the world waits for what comes next, the one constant has been, surprisingly enough, Twitter.
The micro-blogging platform has been hot in the news since the Egyptian government shut it down after realizing that protestors were organizing themselves via the service.
Twitter, of course, responded to the black out and called for a restoration of the site, saying, “freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users’ right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed.” And today, thankfully, Google announced a work-around using cell phones so that Egyptians will be able to Tweet.
Twitter has a point, and freedom of expression (or the lack thereof) is certainly one of the underlying reasons for the uprising in Egypt, but does this all seem like overkill to anyone else? Twitter wasn’t even around five years ago and now it is, apparently, the world’s last bastion of freedom.
Although, “Give me Twitter or give me death” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
The situation in Egypt is certainly grave, and in a weird, roundabout, almost nonsensical way, Twitter helped shed light on that. But I can’t help but think it’s actually illuminating something that’s perhaps even more troubling: America’s obsession with Twitter.
Before Egypt shut down Twitter, it was just another Middle Eastern uprising against a vague government that nobody here cared about. Now, it’s a travesty and at the forefront of the news. Consider this series of infographics, which, while neat-o looking, are kind of useless. “See, Egyptian people were tweeting about the uprising that happened,” is the basic gist of the post. Well, of course they were. And if Twitter weren’t around they’d be talking about it and writing pamphlets.
Or this heartwarming story about brave Egyptians persevering in their quest to tweet.
Or how it’s a “really cool” way to follow all the action. (Really?)
Or how a heroic band of marauding hackers is attempting to get Egyptians back online and on Twitter.
And there are many, many more stories like this (a Google News search for Egypt Twitter yields over 600 results). But for all the effort spent trying to get Egyptians their Twitter back, and all the ink spilt writing about those efforts, how many Americans actually know what’s going on and what it means? Precious few, I suspect.
