2011: When We Took Our Lives And Placed Them On The Internet

As we stepped into the second decade of the 21^st century, many analysts predicted a change: a change in the way we'll lead our daily lives, a change in the way we'll spend our money, a change in our leadership and a change in our natural environment. Change was imminent. Now, as 2012 dawns upon us, we can safely pat those gloating analysts on their backs (or send them a Tweet, if that’s how the system works these days) and say, “Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen; Change we most certainly did.”

As I debated with myself what the most significant event of the year was, I logged on to my Facebook account to find a pop-up revealing their latest idea – the timeline. The introductory video that followed portrayed the life of one Andy Sparks, your average thirty-something American, right from his birth to his high school graduation, from his wedding day to the birth of his first child, neatly accompanied by his likes, places he’s visited, status updates and shared links. In short, they want your entire life, from your cradle to your coffin, to be documented online for your ‘friends’ to see.  The implications of this advent are yet unknown, but you can just imagine them, can’t you?

No one can doubt the major part social media played in the Arab Spring, arguably the most historic bit of this year’s timeline. A movement sparked by the self-immolation of a struggling shopkeeper in a corrupt Tunisia - that caused the spirit of protest against one’s government to rapidly spread across the Middle-East and North Africa. Egyptians rallied their protests from the vast legions of the internet to a massive revolt at Tahrir Square in order to terminate the 30-year-regime of President Hosni Mubarak, Libyan rebels fought tooth and nail against supporters of their tyrannous leader Moammar Gadhafi while similar uprisings took place in Syria, Bahrain and other parts of the region. People who shared a common interest in democracy built social networks to organize political action and spread their ideas – with a multitude of activity on Facebook, millions of opinionated Tweets and gigabytes of YouTube videos causing a viral fervour of uprising on the World Wide Web.

The same means were used for questionable ends in the United Kingdom, as viewers around the world were shocked by scenes of night-time rioting, looting and arson by hooded youth on the streets, causing politicians to furiously debate the feasibility of suspending the social media sites on which the disgruntled youth had coherently plotted their uprising. An inquiry into their motives brought to light the widening gap between the rich and the poor, an outcome of misguided capitalism. Capitalism took another crunching blow, this time across the Atlantic as protesters gathered for the Occupy Wall Street Movement against policies that favoured the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few amidst an ever-increasing debt situation. Economic woes were characteristic of 2011 as the eurozone crisis continues to drag on with no foreseeable solution to look forward to.

The year saw its fair share of natural disasters with earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and hurricanes hitting different parts of the world at various points in time. Japan suffered the most, as a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off its coast triggered the worst tsunami in years, destroying everything in its path and leading to widespread displacement and loss of life. To add to their woes, radiation leaked into the air and contaminated water spilt into the sea due to a meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, with scientists fearing grave consequences. The social media community could only upload innumerable ‘Save a Life with Just a Click’ campaigns leading to furious clicking the world over.

High-profile deaths were also a prominent feature in 2011 and internet communities paid elaborate tributes to some while heaved vocal sighs of relief at the demise of others. Somewhat opportunely, the first news of Osama bin Laden’s death was not via Barack Obama’s victorious announcement at the White House, but a Tweet from one of Bin Laden’s Pakistani neighbours, complaining irritably on Twitter about the presence of a US helicopter in his backyard. The joyous scenes outside the White House and across the United States were interpreted by many as a vile display of foolishness, sinking lower than the so-called terrorists themselves. The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an outspoken American citizen of Yemeni origin, by a US missile was disturbing, in the least. YouTube videos of the scholar allegedly propagating anti-American sentiments were sufficient cause for the US government to dispose off one of its own citizens without any substantial evidence or a fair trial? It highlighted the prevalent double standards within the US democracy. Another American, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, received unending tributes online for the way he changed the digital world.

October brought with it the news of Moummar Gadhafi’s death by NATO forces resulting in a shift of power in Libya.  Two months later, American politicians struggled to hide their glee at the death of their long-standing foe, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, a man whose face hangs from portraits in the living rooms of millions of Korean households.  The announcement of his death, and the subsequent appointment of his inexperienced son Kim Jong Un as the “Supreme Leader” has lead to a mass influx of opinions by concerned bloggers, Tweeps and pseudo-analysts alike. Perhaps 2012 will bring with it some clarity in the sphere of politics, God only knows.

The News of the World phone-hacking scandal left many with a bitter taste in their mouth in 2011. A murky uncertainty about everything followed: people questioned who was viewing their personal information, people questioned their governments and their far-too-evident lack of honesty and people eventually questioned themselves, as to why the world has been caught in this tangle between truth, reality, violence and the role of the internet in all of this. Perhaps that is the hallmark of 2011, more than any particular event – the sheer scale of the impact that one event somewhere on the planet can have on everybody else, because its a smooth touch, some rapid typing or even an innocent click on the word ‘Like’ that can change everything.  ∎