"Twitter revolution narratives are popular because rather than being about Tunisia, they are often really about ourselves. When we glorify the role of social media we are partly glorifying ourselves. Some of us are not only praising the tools we know and love and use every day, but also the tools we build and have stakes in. To proclaim a Twitter revolution is almost a form of intellectual colonialism, stealthy and mildly delusional: We project our world, our values, and concerns onto theirs and we shouldn’t. We use Twitter and so must they. In our rush to christen the uprising, did we think to ask Tunisians what they wanted to call their revolution?"
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Can We Please Stop Talking About ‘Twitter Revolutions’?
aatombomb: ‘Remember when they were called “pamphlet revolutions”? Me either.’
I’m not altogether opposed to the narcissism angle on international news. Have you ever tried to engage an American in a conversation about Tunisia without an angle that makes it about them?
(via johnness)(via johnness)
