Are we seeing a new worldwide "spring"?

Who can remember the Arab Spring protests and all the transformations that they happened to bring in Egypt, some 10 years ago?

The relationship between how social media and mainstream media are currently working hard in controlling how (mis)information is consumed and shared, and some "great awakening" among the masses are no coincidence, in my opinion.

The Social Media Role

I am from a generation that used to send and receive letters with postcards to our dearest, who grew up without social media (thank God) and needed to do some research on any topic we would like to really get a grip on.
I did have access to the internet from a young age, but social media networks were not yet so present, and even less dominant in comparison to our current internet usage.

With the popularization of social networks such as Orkut (very popular in Brazil), Myspace, and Facebook it got much easier to find people alike who would share our same interests and tastes, who would help us to develop our knowledge sharing information and media, who would even become very close friends - many times closer than the ones we actually grew up with.
This opened so many doors to how we build and engage in our communities, that in fact, I consider myself being a very lucky human being who got the chance to see this transformation happening right before my eyes, and be part of what it is to build an online community and bring it to the offline world.

Meeting up with strangers from the internet was not a thing back then, and before Tinder and Airbnb disrupting the hotel market and the relationship industries, we could never imagine how this new world would really look like.

Going back a little bit, following a brief historical context of what was happening during the 1920s, next to the Russian Revolution, there was the "intelligent" use of propaganda, the first radio stations, the first documentary movie, and the beginning of the film industry too.
It seems we are on the cusp of another period of great technological advancement and political transformations - without even mentioning cosmic events here - but it also seems to me that if we don't watch out, we will passively accept the beginning of a new dystopian and tyrannical world.

The series of protests and #revolutions that happened in Egypt, for instance, was a product of people who got tired of having their life and rights oppressed and found a new tool to discuss ideas and organize themselves as a group. The #MSM took ages to actually mention what was going on back then.

Protests Everywhere

The past decade has been full of protests and political major shifts in #Brazil, where I come from, but not only there. We also have seen big protests happening in #Bolivia, #Venezuela, very recently in #Chile, and now in #Colombia too.

What amazes me is that when I was in Brazil, during some major #protests that took over the country in 2013, the media was completely silent about it. And it was massive.
Bolsonaro's popularity started to gain momentum at that time, and until 1 year before the 2018 elections, the media was still ignoring him as if he had no popularity or power whatsoever.
Following Trump's example, of someone who had no support from the mainstream media and yet, is one of the most popular US presidents to date, #Bolsonaro built a very active social media presence.

Unfortunately, Venezuela is so f**ked up that they don't have access to the communication and Internet networks connecting the whole world - and perhaps that happened on purpose - otherwise, we would be hearing much more about what is really going on there for the past couple of years.

#HongKong was literally burning and people were being arrested for protesting against China's control attempt over their sovereignty, using technology and espionage.
#Georgia is currently on fire because of what's going on with their government. #Belarus is suffering from a lot of oppression and this is an enigma to me till today, as I can barely find real information about the reasons behind it and their relationship with Russia.
#Russians were protesting against Putin's attempt to change the constitution, and...

All we talk about is Corona

Last weekend there were millions of people protesting to defend Bolsonaro in Brazil during the last 1st of May, and all I could find on #Google is about how Brazil is mishandling corona measures.
I am not there, I don't know what is really going on, but it tells me something when the narrative prioritizes reporting one thing over the other.
In #Israel, there is massive protesting against the forced vaccinations and suppression of rights for those who refuse to take the vaccine...

Have you heard about that on the news?

I strongly believe that the homogeneity over the discourse on mainstream media together with the community's guidelines and policies from the big social networks are no coincidence.

Back to the #springtime, the reflection I want to bring is on how these networks were such powerful tools to mobilize and unite people around their common interests, and how it is now completely changed. There is no more room for controversial opinions or antagonistic discussions.
We can only read about gender and race "me against them" topics, corona "panic creating", or someone being offended by someone else's actions "how freedom of speech is bad".

The real matters, the real #censorship, and the real problems we are facing are being carefully suppressed by our communication networks. And that sucks.

But being aware of it is the first step. And I just wanted to invite you into a deeper reflection about the current world narratives.

Rather than Corona being the most remarkable event of the century, there is something much nicer happening behind the curtains. The shift of political power and people sacrificing themselves to maintain their #freedom is the most beautiful and honorable thing one can do for their life and their fellow compatriots.

May our grandchildren thank them for standing up against tyranny.

Love and light,