Three weeks into the chain of radical civilian protests that have the Egyptian government and its people still reeling, Grand Valley State University student Nadine Morcos said it feels strange not being able to contact her friends and family back home since the government in Egypt shut down the Internet.

“It was very weird not being able to access my friends and family’s Facebook pages or call them or find them on Skype,” she said.

Half South African and half Egyptian, Morcos moved came to GVSU a little more than a year ago to work toward a liberal studies degree with an emphasis on international relations and non-profit organization. She said social networking has always been a prominent channel of communication, even before it was used in protest.

“That Mubarak forced a shutdown of ISPs proves that there is a growing understanding that many young people use the Internet as their primary form of communication today,” said Danielle Leek, associate professor of communications at GVSU.

Although the actual power of its aid in the protest movement is under scrutiny by many, Brian Bowe, visiting professor of communications and Middle East studies faculty member at GVSU, said there is no denying the hand social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have had in the crisis in the Middle East.

“Social media has proven to be very effective in circumventing the traditional kind of handcuffed media in countries like Egypt and Iran,” Bowe said. “As such, it can be a really important tool for giving people that kind of information that they need to organize and advocate for their grievances.”

While seeking his doctorate at Michigan State University, Bowe and a few other graduate students were published in a journal article that explores the phenomena of social networking as a tool of protest. Although Bowe agrees on the important role social networking has played, he said it is just as easy to overestimate how effective social media has been.

“Not to say that it’s not an important tool – it’s just that Egypt has shown that it is possible to shut down the Internet and really stop, or at least limit, the effectiveness as an organizing tool,” he added.

Likewise, professor of communication studies Corey Anton said he believes social networking is on the global rise.

“I think in the globe it’s going to be a rule changer,” Anton said. “It will completely change the way politics are done, especially in small geographically dense areas. There are movements right now to try to cut against the role of anonymous information.”

Like with all good things, however, Bowe said there is darker side to social networking in these less developed nations that has a far less game-changing outcome. The transparency of social networking is both its strength and its weakness.

“Social media can also be used as a tool of surveillance,” Bowe said. “There were reports out of Iran that once the protests had died down, secret police then was able to go through and use social media to track down protesters and arrest them, crack down on them, and there’s also reports that that is starting to happen in Egypt.”

With 175 million registered users, Twitter’s global reach has some American’s wondering whether or not large-scale protest through social networking might spread to the United States. Bowe thinks it already has.

“That social media is changing things in ways that I don’t think we fully grasp yet,” he said. “It is connecting people and changing us from this model of simply receiving communications to being active participants. So instead of just reading a news story, then I post it and comment on it, and all my friends see it – and not just my friends but my connections – and maybe they then post it to their social networks.”

Anton said, however, he has little faith of seeing any real, tangible differences in the U.S. in regards to social media and protest.

“I think there are a lot of shadow-skulkers and basement dwellers who are very animated about YouTube and their political platforms and beliefs on their Twitters and things, but would they step out?” Anton said. “Would they put their heads on a chopping block in a public place for it? I don’t think so. Not in the way that these people in a third world would – that have basically everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

Bowe said that social media has been a powerful player, but it isn’t the star.

“It would be wrong for us to say that social media is driving the debate,” he said. “These are grievances that have been bubbling up for a long time.”

And although Bowe said it’s hard to say what the future holds for social networking, one thing is for certain: it’s here to stay.

“What it has done is it has offered a forum, it’s helped give voice to the voiceless, and it’s also helped people connect and understand that their grievances were shared by others and to see the extent to which they are shared by others,” he said. “So no – I don’t think it’s a fad. I think this is changing the way we communicate across space, across time, in ways that I don’t think we grasp yet.”

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