Government Internet Shutdown Mobilized the Masses
The government could have been smarter. The best way to divert our youth from politics would have been to give them free, unlimited internet access a few days before the protests, and drop the price of beer and condoms – all the while playing “Be safe, live long” songs on the radios. The youngies would have been watching porn, WhatsApping and YouTubing, and would have been too distracted to think about politics.
Shutting down the internet achieved the opposite. Far from limiting youth mobilisation, it galvanised word of mouth and turned many neutrals against the regime. To young people for whom the internet had become so much part of the daily routine, the shutdown felt like an intrusion, a burglary of their personal life.
Previously preoccupied mostly by sex and alcohol during the long two months of the school vacation, our youth were bloated with testosterone and boosted by a huge surge in political consciousness. They started gathering, talking to each other, commenting on the moves and motives of political leaders. The shutdown brought more people into the political stream.
Notes:
Folksonomies: politics revolution productivity distraction mobilization
Taxonomies:
/law, govt and politics/government (0.504107)
/law, govt and politics/politics (0.460982)
/society/unrest and war (0.410347)
Keywords:
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Entities:
burglary:Crime (0.665155 (:0.000000)), testosterone:Drug (0.653078 (:0.000000)), two months:Quantity (0.653078 (:0.000000))
Concepts:
Political philosophy (0.976925): dbpedia_resource
Internet (0.948224): dbpedia_resource
Aristotle (0.714229): dbpedia_resource
Government (0.639230): dbpedia_resource
Young (0.586396): dbpedia_resource
Internet access (0.563576): dbpedia_resource
Pornography (0.563075): dbpedia_resource
Youth (0.537178): dbpedia_resource
No business, no boozing, no casual sex: when Togo turned off the internetSchemas
Productivity
Memes on becoming a producer rather than consumer.
