The power of Facebook

 Image 1: Facebook image

Power is a daily part of human experience in two ways. Either being subjected to it or exercising it. The different ways of how power works have risen the interest of many power theorists to talk about power in its different aspects such as “power” to act, and “power over” (Allen 2003, 5) and the way it is perceived in societies including even its relation with geography. Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze have established themselves as credited scholars in understanding power on a list of many others such as Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Anthony Giddens, Michael Mann, etc. (Allen 2003, 7).

            In the context of relationship between power and geography, we assisted yesterday and we still assist today at the redefinition of frontiers. Not only Europe has suffered but also Africa. The most recent case is the split of ancient Sudan into two countries: Sudan and South Sudan which is the youngest born of nations seating now at the United Nations arena. This raises a fundamental question. What is power?

            According to Allen, “power… is a relational effect of social interaction” (Allen 2003, 2). Because power is framed in a socio relational context and it is of different kind and nature, I choose to talk about the power of communication through social media, particularly Facebook.                       The internet has revolutionized the way of life turning now the world in one village by creating strong  virtual communities able to offer friendship all over the world, help to its members, surveillance of one another (for example Panopticon system), social control, earning, shopping malls, etc. Limitations from geography and distance have been overcome. In some circumstances and places, the power of Facebook today has been used to fight and liberate people who have been taken in hostage by dictatorship regimes. For example the power of Facebook was used to mobilize young men and women to oust the President Blaise Compaore (2015) of Burkina Faso who wanted to cling on power against the constitution. The Tharir Square experience in Egypt ended in the departure of President Osni Mubarak (2011) and the same power made fail recently the military coup against the President of Turkey (2016).

            No wonder, Facebook and other socio media are powerful instruments of communication able the change the course of history as other traditional powers. However, a serious attention must be observed in the use of Facebook power to mobilize. Zinger J.P., in his attributed Day’s Collacon, gives this important warning: “Power unsubjected to the control of virtue is a poor guardian of civil liberty”.

References

Allen, John (2003). Lost Geographies of Power. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York/London: Simon & Schuster Paperback.