I think I agree with Doug. We have no idea whatever what these media will mean in the future, so even talking about it has an air of tea-leaf reading.
In contrst, we _could_ hypothesize various futures of the present uprising in Egypt, then explore the meaning of the present in terms of that hypothesized future state. That's what Marx did when he hypothesized (not predicted) a socialist future: it gave him the perspective he needed to understand capitalism.
I am also curious why current technology should eve be called "social" media in contrast to past technology. The clay tablets of Mycenae articulated a social relationship holding together a Palace Economy. They were every bit as much a social medeium as, for example, Twitter. That's what confused me when for the first time I saw the phrase in Doug's post. Social media are as old as cave paintings at the least.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of 123hop at comcast.net Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 2:04 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The role of social media in the Egyptian uprising
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
Really? If I hear another hymn of praise to social media, I may fucking scream.
--- Stop. It's not about a hymn of praise. It's about understanding how it works... in some detail. Saying that the civil rights movement succeedeed without social media so that means social media is nothing...will not do.
Joanna ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk