[Air-L] Social Media and the UK Riots: ?Twitter Mobs?, ?Facebook Mobs?, ?Blackberry Mobs? and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism (Christopher J. Richter)

[Mattie Palmer]

Hello all,

I worry that critical approaches might be a knee-jerk reaction to analyzing the impact of technology on the riots in the UK.  While that might be warranted in situations more akin to the Arab Spring, where men and women took to the streets for the purpose of political demonstration, the riots in the UK are not in protest.  It is not class warfare nor a plea for social justice.  There is not an archaic caste system that needs toppled.  It is looting and mob mentality.

Thinking of this is important when looking at the role of social media and technology and the subsequent criticism of it.  It's my opinion that many of the news outlets have focused on social media because it's still fairly recent that such open source technology has been used for macro-level social coordination.  Compared to the chronology of social and political conflict, social media is in its neonatal period!  It's the new toy...  I haven't heard calls for Orwellian surveillance, but I'm also in the United States where such commentary might not make it into the headlines.  I know with the 'flash mobs' here there have not been calls for the policing of social media and technology.  I feel as though the media and policy makers have done well in identifying social media not as a catalyst or cause but rather a facilitator.

Nevertheless, continually pinning the causes of social delinquency on structural oppression can be misguided.  Unemployment has not caused nine and ten year olds to take to the streets - what jobs would they have had anyway?  Sometimes it's entirely appropriate to call a duck a duck.

Matthew Palmer

----------------------------------------------------
Matthew Palmer
Lehigh University

@TotallyRadGrad
www.lehigh.edu/~mfp210/
----------------------------------------------------