For the debate held on November 22nd, I was given the role of rebutting on the opposing side, arguing against Jodi Deans article and her view of social media as an inhibitor of socio-political change. Prior to the debate, being an avid user of social media myself, I have always found social media platforms to be an important part of getting people to the polls. Therefore, as I clearly was slightly biased before even embarking on the preparation of the debate, I decided to mainly focus my pre-debate research on statistics that could harm the legitimacy of Dean’s arguments. Seeing as the Dean article was written ten years ago, I chose to mainly focus on statistics concerning political involvement in the past decade to see if the incredible growth of social media had created a difference. After the debate, though the opposing theme had managed to come up with several well thought out arguments supporting Dean, I still personally believe that Dean’s article is outdated and not fitting in the political environment of today. With social media gradually taking over our everyday lives and and 49% of millennials, the future of North-America, considering Twitter and Facebook to be their most important source of news and politics, it is important to recognize the political influence these platforms have today and will have in the future. Therefore, my original stance of disagreeing with Dean’s arguments have stayed the same.
While listening to the other team’s debate, my opinion on the subject of social media and socio-political change grew even stronger. Learning more about the role social media played in the Egyptian revolution showed how much power that can be found on social media platforms, and also how heavily contrasting Dean’s opinion is to the one argued in Castell’s chapter. According to Castell and the debaters arguing for the author, social media did not only give activists a safe platform to share their opinion and information about the political climate, but also helped in riling up the demonstrators to prepare for the protests. Thousands of Egyptians went to the streets to demonstrate, many of which, Castell argues, were there because of social media. One of Dean’s main arguments in her article, states that any political contribution on social media is merely “a drop in the ocean of cultural and political stuff engulfing us” (Dean 26). Based on what was argued by the for-side during this debate, Castells opinion differs vastly from Dean’s on this matter. In conclusion, throughout this debate my original opinion has not strayed, only grown stronger, and I still believe social media platforms to be the political battlegrounds of the future.
Dean, Jodi. “Ch. 1. Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism.” Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics, Duke University Press, 2009, pp. 19–48.