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PDFEvidently, Evgeny Morozov isn’t the only observer questioning the efficacy of digital activism.
The revolts across the Arab world suggest that “social media has proved more useful for mobilizing protesters than organizing civil society or political parties,” Marc Lynch writes for Foreign Policy:
The advantages conferred by new media are skewed toward action, enthusiasm, and loose, issue-oriented networks, not toward the hard, patient work of building organizations. Leaderless movements are great for surviving regime repression and binding together loose coalitions, but less well adapted to formulating a coherent political strategy or mobilizing millions of voters.
For Islamists, social media is a supplement to grass-roots organizing; for too many secular activists, it’s a substitute.
