Social networking is amazing. As Shirkey explains in the video, no longer are we forced to hear the messages sent by the privileged few who for a long time, controlled access to media. We, the individuals are the news creators and conveyors. In my opinion, social networking encourages connections and communications across all levels of human society and we are able to learn more about the rest of the world by forging bonds with each other. Now that we can connect with individuals, it will be much harder for us to confuse the messages sent by a tyrannical dictator as representative of that leader's people. By communicating with normal people across the world, we are more likely to see a group of people as oppressed by a bad governement rather than as evil members of an evil country.
Considering how powerful social networking is, could you imagine how the events of the Holocaust would be different had people had access to this medium of communication. I can imagine that on November 11 1938 (Kristallnacht) we would see the facebook statuses of German Jews would be something like:
"Fuck Hitler youth for trashing my Dad's store" or "being forced to leave by Nazis."
Although the Germans were pretty good at stealing all of the Jews personal belongings, it would be possible for a few people to sneak in a cell phone to the concentration camps. Could you imagine how people would react to videos of stacks of dead bodies? I'm fairly sure that had the US population received such horrifying images, the US governement would have intervened before Pearl Harbor and would have at least bombed the railroads leading to Auschwitz and the other death camps.
Furthermore, had Jews living in the ghettos observed their fellow men being led to their deaths via cell phone videos, the Jews may have been able to coordinate an effective resistance against the Nazis or at least have had a better idea of what was really going on.
Also, when we consider the earthquake in China discussed by Shirkey, no one denied that the earthquake happened as far too many were instantly reporting their observations as it occurred. Had the Jews had access to this technology I doubt that Holocaust denial would be an issue. It's pretty hard to claim that millions of people are involved in a conspiracy at the same time especially when the medium that would connect the consipirators is the same that others would be using.
Too bad this technology hasn't existed for longer but now it is up to us to use it responsibly and ensure that these horrible things don't happen again. How do you think the Nazi's would have used social networking sites? Perhaps to unify the Hitler Youth? How do you think that American Nazi sympathizers would have reacted in this situation if they were seeing images from Jews and Nazis during the Holocaust?
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The Nazi's would have used social networking to their advantage and persuade more Germans to become Nazis as well as convince Germans into believing that they were superior to Jews. Hitler and the Nazi's would have also tried to censor the web so Jews or even Germans wouldn't post images or information regarding the genocide of Jews.
ReplyDeleteIf American Nazi sympathizers would have had access to these horrific images and data they probably wouldn't feel the same way they did because they would of seen all the damage done by Nazi soldiers.
Hey Brittany-
ReplyDeleteI guess great minds think alike? I posted some similar scenarios on my blog, using the Holocaust horrors as well. It's nice to imagine all the good technology could have done, but as you imply in your question it could have done a lot of good. The Nazis could have created false websites and all other sorts of propaganda to warp the minds of thousands. Not to mention the infiltration of Jewish security networks online. With all the good that comes from technology, it seems to me there is a fair amount of bad...
I disagree about these social networking sites been a good thing. There are two main types of people who use them, those who want attention and those who want to stay in contact with people they already know, you problaly could get to know the 2nd type, but they are so scared by anyone new contacting them that they freak out. Maybe everythings rosey for other people but I see things from a different side of the fence, I am exstreamly shy and they could be a way to way to make new friends but often thats not the incase as people aren't there for that, in all honesty I have never felt more alone than I do now. Strange that the very thing that was meant to bring people togeather has lead to the opposite, its like when you see someone walking down the street, instead of been involved with people around them their talking away on their mobile, locked in their own private world which you can penetrate into.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the person who made the first social networking website had good intentions, but remember why hitler came to power, people thought he would make things better, its the samething with social networking and hitler would of loved that.
I think for all the bad that social networking during the Holocaust would have evoked (Nazis using it to their advantage), there would have been double the good. Obviously some people would still deny the Holocaust ("those images are fabricated"), but I bet there would be a lot less Holocaust deniers. I don't think the Hitler and the Nazis would have been as powerful, because the oppressed masses would have more power (just as in China, with the earthquake).
ReplyDeleteAnd, what about just social support? I think social networking would have been good because it would have brought the oppressed together. What the Jews and other people targeted by the Nazis experienced was horrendous (there really are no appropriate words to describe what they went through), but, just knowing that you had people that cared about you and were unfortunately experiencing the same thing, might have brought about a little glimmer of hope that everyone would get through this.
I thought about writing on this topic also but I didn't because I thought the Nazis might have prohibited social networking technology all together. I'm glad you wrote about it though.
ReplyDeleteI think the Nazis would have censored social networking in the same way China tries by filtering before it comes in the country and then shutting it down if it gets too far gone. But of course they would have used it to push their agenda, maybe even a Hitler fanpage. If the technology had been around during that time, maybe the people living in the Nazi occupied countries would have seen the atrocities and took more actions against the Nazis. You never know!
Besides the already discussed implications of what social networking could have done to both help and hinder Nazi Germany, I think it is worth considering how social networking has affected comparable situations occuring today.
ReplyDeleteMost people agree the Darfur region is experiencing one of the most grave human rights situations in the world right now. And while I've personally seen how social networking AWAY from the situation has affected things, (in terms of additional awareness, perhaps even donations and other help for the region) I feel there hasn't been a lot of social networking occuring in the region. Maybe this is not true and just my ill-informed perceptions, but I don't believe social networking from the oppressed would occur so easily. China was reasonably successful in shutting down earthquake reporting after a certain point, and I imagine Nazi Germany would have been successful as well.
In addition, the Nazis began stripping rights from Jews well before concentration camps. Would they have ever been allowed cell phones or full Internet access in that time? How much could have been done to prevent and inform the world about the situation?