tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post329303188814666075..comments2024-01-08T19:49:13.932+00:00Comments on Froogville: The genie won't go back in the bottleFrooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-5699440371463314472012-04-28T06:12:48.235+00:002012-04-28T06:12:48.235+00:00I would never indulge in this microblogging lark m...I would never indulge in this microblogging lark myself, but it is a significant socio-cultural phenomenon - particularly in places like China, where it is attaining such massive uptake so quickly.<br /><br />The Internet in general, and these sorts of 'social networking' application in particular, were kind of launching into a void here. Mass media, mass entertainment, and mass communication didn't exist here in any meaningful way until just a decade or so ago. Nobody places much trust in the state-run newspapers and so on, the TV channels here are unimaginably shite; there wasn't much of a telephone network until the late '90s, and people didn't even have much access to e-mail and IM until around 10 years ago. People have been denied avenues of diversion (not much free time, not much disposable income, not very much to do outside of work, and - with this One Child Policy generation - perhaps not many friends), and denied easy means of communicating with each, and denied opportunities for self-expression. Suddenly that's all changed - and they're going a little bit crazy with it!<br /><br />It's fun to behold, but also somewhat frightening. I can see where the government's alarm is coming from. However, I think the CCP largely <i>makes it a problem</i> by its reaction. They've been so used to being ABLE TO CONTROL <i>EVERYTHING</i> for so many years that they panic when they discover that this new medium is almost impossible for them to control; they feel they must still <i>try</i> to exercise the old rigid forms of control; they fail, they make themselves look stupid, and they make matters far worse for themselves - they create a problem where there really wasn't one.<br /><br />If the CCP just ignored what people said online, nothing would be any different. Except perhaps that people wouldn't bitch about the 'sensitive topics' quite so, would graduate on to more mundane and less controversial matter. It's the government's hopping anxiety about certain things that attracts attention, that makes them <i>interesting</i>. Netizens - not just in China, all over the world - revel in winding people up; if you don't let yourself be wound up, they'll move on to other targets.<br /><br />And those new targets and topics will be mostly very trivial and non-political, I suspect. The Chinese, by and large, are too self-centred, too complacent, and too disunited to REBEL. We're not going to see any repeat of the 'Arab Spring' here, I don't think. Not any time soon, anyway. <i>Alas.</i>Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-72163440522994287402012-04-26T09:24:52.659+00:002012-04-26T09:24:52.659+00:00I'm surprised at your choice of subject Froog,...I'm surprised at your choice of subject Froog, I thought you hated micro-blogging?<br />PM on BBC Radio 4 had an interesting piece on the political impact of Twitter on Tuesday. If you're able to access it it starts at around 41 minutes in. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw<br />It wasn't focusing on the phenomenon of the rallying cry Twitter has given the disgruntled populations of problematic countries but rather that politicians here have accepted the power it gives the public and have learnt to keep an eye on it (not trying to block it, yet); we of course had the whole trouble with super-injunctions some weeks back.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15692328535476075420noreply@blogger.com