Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution; I believe all of us has probably heard of it either through the news or word-of-mouth. As a Hong Kong citizen, I have been following the news minute-by-minute through different social media platforms and news channels.
Until I came upon this article and found out facts such as the spike of twitter hashtag #occupycentral has over 259,000 mentions at end of September with 2,859 tweets per day, and #umbrellarevolution has 54,000 mentions over last 30days with 591 tweets per day.
This makes me consider how technology plays a part within this revolution, because in comparison the last time a similar rebellion happened in China was in Tiananmen Square in 1976, when Chinese government used excessive military power to force protestors out – the key difference is, the real time technology updates causes restrictions in the choice of actions taken by Hong Kong Government.
Social media platforms enable the incident to be spread around the world minutes as events unfold and more and more protestors around the world are gathering near Chinese Embassy to join the #umbrellarevolution.
This incident is a true indicator of how #technologychangesourlives.
If it wasn’t for online youtube videos of the tear gas attack from the Hong Kong Police Forces that generated over hundred thousands of views, I personally believe that the resistance and support for the “Umbrella Revolution” might be significantly lower. Here is an example of the many videos available on different social media platforms:
I have never been forevermore grateful that we have twitter and facebook and instragram, because it prevented many injuries. Because it prevented Tiananmen incident again.
This is the #powerofsocialmedia.