Much to the surprise of the rest of the world, on the 18th Of December 2010, an upsurge of civil unrest shook the usually complacent Egyptian Republic. Protests against authoritarian rule, burning fires and waving banners started a process which would become known as the “Arab Spring”. This term came from the historical reference to the European Revolutions of 1848 as “The European Spring”. Within weeks this process spread through the Middle East, reaching Tunisia, Egypt (a second time), Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and the Sudan. For many centuries people often wondered how messages could overcome the vast expanse of the desert and reach a recipient at a distant oasis within hours. This time there was no reason to wonder. Political analysts, historians, journalists were in complete agreement: The social media played a vital part. If it was not for emails, whatsapp, bbm, Facebook, Twitter etc the Arab Spring would probably not have reached the extend it eventually achieved – that of a complete political revolution and eventual freedom. In the light of this I can’t help but wonder why we are so reluctant to use the social media to its full capacity. And by that I mean: Every single one of us. You are reading this message because you are on facebook. So now click the button and share it. Even better: Invite your friends to come here and like this page. It’s the old story: If one person invites two more, and each one of them invites another two… It has been proven over and over: It is a struggle to get our people together. Weekdays are so busy, we need to work and drive the kids and prepare dinner, Saturdays we don’t want to hang about because there is rugby on SS2 and Sundays we braai with the Joneses and the Smiths. So let us make plan B and get our people together on the social network. Make that your task before you sign off today: Share one of the posts on this page, any one, on your own timeline and then invite 5 friends to join this page.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 13:02:50 +0000