Topic 1: Are Social Network Sites Agents for Peace and Freedom or Do They Fuel Violence and Cruelty?

Topic 1: Are social network sites agents for peace and freedom or do they fuel violence and cruelty?
Pros Cons
Social networking sites if used constructively may be used to influence change and assist in mobilisation, empowerment and shaping opinions. May be used to organise and spread awareness about on-going protests as done by the Egyptians and Tunisians in March 2011, and Kenyan Politicians in the Post Election violence of December 2007. However this may be unsuccessful.
Twitter, and other social media channels, provides a key and very immediate mechanism to get information and voices out that would otherwise never be heard. The average American teen spends almost eight hours a day tapping away on smart phones or laptops, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, making them prime targets for online bullying.
Cyberbullying is defined as “repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.”
Followers actively try, continuously, to spread advice, tips and words of love, peace, awareness, motivation and unity although their ages, ethnicity, race, backgrounds, social status, traditions and country of origin may widely differ. Unlike traditional forms of schoolyard bullying, cyberbullied teens are more likely than their bullies to develop feelings of depression, according to the National Institutes of Health. And unlike traditional forms of bullying, cyberbullying follows the target home. The widespread use of cell phones and social networking sites can make the victim feel like there’s no escape, according to Wiseman. While the majority of cyberbullied teens won’t resort to suicide, victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely to attempt suicide.
Based on the unobtrusive nature of social media interaction, which allows for having the freedom to choose who you communicate with, because communication is willingly initiated, continued and ended.
Social media is slowly changing the nature and scope to broader public participation in public related issues and concerns, eliminating the focus on the “one” and building the focus on the “many”.
These social media can be helpful in: a) mobilizing protesters rapidly; b) undermining a regime’s legitimacy; or c) increasing national and international exposure to a regime’s atrocities. Any use of these social media is likely to be more successful in a country that has some form of democracy; so far, the exit of Tunisia’s Ben Ali is the only example we have of social media non-violently ousting an autocrat.

Philip N. Howard, assoc. professor of communication at the Univ. of Washington, and other scholars have analyzed the millions of tweets, YouTube videos and blog posts and concluded that “social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring… Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom.