fall break

Over fall break I went to NYC. While I was there the "occupy wall street" protest was taking place. It was really interesting to see the role of technology in the protest. Social media allowed enormous number of people to very quickly gather (at one point the estimate was around 100,000 in Times Square). The protesters were broken up several times only to quickly reconvene because instant communication via Twitter and other social networking sites made it possible to almost instantly reorganize.

Although the protesters were unified by social media, it was interesting to hear that most people were not unified in their message. Some people even argue that the internet has made it too easy for protests to take place, and that it is responsible for the protesters lack of a unified message. I agree that the internet made it very easy for just anyone to join in on the protest, but I found that the message of the protest was actually clearest online. Very few people could say exactly what the were protesting, but online there were very specific grievances, such as the repeal of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act.