The Power of Twitter

When I first saw this editorial cartoon drawn by Bob Gorrell, I have to say that immediately drew out my cynicism.  My head screamed, “yeah, like twitter really does THAT much.”  Despite my skepticism, ironically, I still “tweet” daily and even convince myself that my few tweets a day do matter in the scheme of things.  Nonetheless, the increased attention and outrage at the Iranian election has clearly heightened the awareness of Twitter.

In fact, the story of Neda  Agha-Soltan’s death provides the movement with a face—an individual murdered for desiring freedom.  To me, this makes the complete outrage with the Iranian election even more infuriating.  It’s such a unfathomable concept to me to witness such an abhorrence for democracy that a government will resort to public and blatant democide.  It’s hard to remember how lucky we truly are.

It is a blessing to awake everyday, and to have the ability to mindlessly post on a blog or forum, etc.  For me, it is a much needed break from studying and work where I can just write what I am thinking.  It isn’t even important that anyone reads it per se, but just that I CAN do it.  It’s therapeutic actually. 

Point is, most of the time I twitter, I mainly post what’s on my mind, which issue I’m currently thinking about or even what I am doing.  For the most part, no one REALLY cares… but it’s comforting to see that with #

Neda—when it is TRULY important, people care. #Neda is a martyr to the Iranian people.  She is a woman that died for democracy.  She is a symbol to the world.  She died for the very reason that I am even able to write this blog—the freedom to thought, speech, and life.

So for #Neda, I am going to keep writing, keep posting, keep sharing.  For the most part, no one is going to really care what a 22-year-old college student has to say; most posts will pass along forgotten, unread, unnoticed.  But then again, maybe it can be the 140 characters to change a nation.  The hashtag to demand #democracy for #Iran.  The extra re-tweet to get a martyr like #Neda noticed.  One thing for sure, you just can’t underestimate the power of Twitter.  And I know I’m going to keep tweeting.  Maybe we can change the world, 140 characters at a time.

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