Censorship and Using Social Networking to Rebel Against Government

With the internet information is able to spread farther and faster but unfortunately not all the world's governments respect the right of free press and free speech. This has become evident with the rebel in Egypt. Today people are able to connect using social networking like facebook and twitter so now people are able to gather support from all over the world so protests against government are more effective. The Internet is a powerful thing and because of this many governments don't want their people to be able to view all content on the internet. One country who is well known for its strict censorship is China. This is because the communist Chinese government doesn't want the Chinese people to be able to read about "revolutionary ideas" that may make people want to rebel against the government. Now the Egyptian government has blocked access to the Internet so its people can no longer voice their opinions online. There has also been unrest in Tunisia and people are also using social networking to gather support which is accelerated the revolution. Now with this rebellion China has blocked all searches with the word Egypt in them so people don't know about people in other less than democratic societies rebelling and demanding a change of government in their countries. It will be interesting in the weeks to come how long it will take for Egypt will unblock the Internet and hopefully Egypt will change its government. With all this attention with social networking and pressure from other countries it will be hard for Egypt to have good relations with other countries if they don't change their government so it is fair and democratic.

Are We Too Connected?

With many social networks we can be connected to many people. It can be beneficial because you able to stay in touch with people that live far away. It can be annoying though hearing everything that people do. Some celebrities constantly tweet about where there eating and what they are doing and other details about their lives. This interests some people that are celebrity crazed and want to know what celebrities are doing every minute. The only benefit that I can think of for following a celebrity is finding out about concerts or what movies there are going to be in. I do admit though much rather hear about celebrities fantastic lives and travelling around the world though then one of my facebook friends posting some boring everyday activity like eating lunch. There are benefits and negatives of being connected but probably more benefits, after all why would people choose to be part of social networking sites like facebook, twitter and MySpace if there weren't benefits. In this connected world you just have to watch what you post and the pictures that others upload of you because a lot of things can't be easily deleted.