Social Media’s Impact on Social Movements in the 21st Century

In 2010, social media, being made available in Arabic, made a large impact in the Middle-East, and social movements throughout several countries exploded from those regions, using the power of social media to their advantage and creating new discussions which were not able to be spoken prior to the introduction of social media in Arabic. Besides creating new social movements, social media has resulted in the transformation and evolution of socialization and how people communicate in their daily lives.
Social media changed the system of networks and connectivity, making communication more tenacious, adaptable, and efficient than ever. Social media is often criticized as a reason for why social movements have not met desired results; however, this is not the fault of social media, rather the fault of the disorganization of people. In this essay, these ideas will be explored, and the many criticisms and misconceptions of social media will be addressed and challenged, creating a more realistic image of social movements with the added power of the new technology called social media.