While conceding that the social media did not cause the Egyptian revolution, Sam Gustin in Wired writes that the social media made significant contributions to the revolution’s success, a development that offers hope to repressed peoples of the Middle East.
Gustin quotes Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative: “In the same way that pamphlets didn’t cause the American Revolution, social media didn’t cause the Egyptian revolution. Social media have become the pamphlets of the 21st century, a way that people who are frustrated with the status quo can organize themselves and coordinate protest, and in the case of Egypt, revolution.”
From a commentary in Wired, February 11, 2011, by Sam Gustin.