Social Media Across the Globe: Tools or Toys?

On Youth in Society: American vs. Egyptian Youth

Social Networks are often used as a playground of escape for young Americans. Whether for work, in class, or at home; most of the youth use social media as a “TOY”. It’s fun and exciting and it occupies time. It allows one to communicate with another to find out who’s doing what, with whom and why?
 
Egyptian youth have utilized the same social networks in an entirely different format. With all the recent protests that have taken place in Egypt; they have used social networks as a powerful “TOOL” to help give insight to people across the nation on what’s really going on in Egypt.

One article discusses how several youth activists used the social networks to organize protests. During the violent times, young Egyptians used networks, such as Twitter, as a way to get information out to the public on the status of their country. The adult response? Blockage! Officials shut down internet usage access the country.  

American adults could respond negatively if American youth took a similar action, but because of the Democratic nature of our society, it could also have some key differences. President Obama saw the value in social media during his 2008 campaign. As a result, many youth came out to vote. The question now is whether or not the youth could use those same tools to successfully connect to adults and leaders? Would American youth even view the networks as tools? Americans may perceive the voting system as their means to voicing their concerns. 

So while youth in America are using, sometimes abusing, the social networks as toys to entertain themselves on a daily basis; they could and should be taking notes from the youth in Egypt. Social networks can be fun, but ultimately they can be used as tools to promote peace, to educate others, and to unify people across the nation.

Here are two great videos on the protests in Egypt. The second is rather lengthy, but very informative.

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