Sunday, April 3, 2011

"The Social Network"

If you have not seen this movie it is worth watching. And if you are a very observant grandfather (like me) with the ability to step the DVD through frame by frame, you will see my grand daughter in the 'dance scene'...it's only a few seconds, but she is a beauty. OK...that's not the point of this blog.

Facebook started as a local Harvard experiment in 2004 by a young man wanting to get students in touch with each other, and since has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has also made its 20+ year old founder the youngest billionaire in the world.

I love Facebook because I can follow the day-to-day activities of my large family and many friends, communicate with them, post pictures, and even get into a spirited debate from time-to-time. But Facebook and other so-called social networks have had a much more profound effect on this world.

I wonder if that young man who started the Facebook experiment at Harvard would have ever dreamed that after a Tunisian vendor set himself on fire to protest his totalitarian government, that the simple communication between people on the internet would set the Middle East on fire. That one incident has caused revolts from people wanting freedom in Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and now especially Libya and Syria. Countries that have for centuries been ruled by an iron fist are being brought to their knees by a network of communication that is slowly bringing this world together and allowing people who have been isolated all their lives to see what freedom is all about.

Think about China and their 1+ billion people who are mostly oppressed without the ability to communicate with the rest of the world. The Chinese government controls all aspects of the internet, but sooner or later technology will win out and when their citizens start realizing what they might be able to achieve in a truly free society, the Chinese government may have the biggest revolt of them all.

Isn't it ironic that all the guns, arrests, torture, and prisons that maintain control in these totalitarian states may some day be defeated by the technology resulting from some college boy at Harvard trying to get students to "network" with each other?

1 comment:

Jeff Pokrajac said...

Mark Zuckerberg misappropriated the source code for Facebook from his employers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra so I don't honor Mark with the invention. But I believe he further innovated their original software and greatly extended its scope and vision. What's scary about Mark is the fact that he has sold out to the liberal globalists in order to realize what is currently a billion dollar paper-only valuation.