[JohnFen]

> Like, isn't "small text blurbs" better than nothing?

I honestly don't think they are. Small text blurbs are not actually informative. You can't engage in nuance, you can't really argue a position, and you can't really have a good debate. They're just good for bloviating, and there are lots of places where you can bloviate anyway.

[antigonemerlin]

Something that's particularly interesting; on Pod Save America, they referenced a study (which I forget right now) that tracked protest effectiveness vs size, and right around the time that twitter/facebook started taking off, protest size skyrocketed while protest effectiveness plummeted.

As it turns out, social media short-circuited traditional methods of organizing. Those traditional methods of organizing, ie, actually knocking on doors and talking with your neighbours, were also the social glue that formed civic groups which did stuff after the protest ended, like voter drives or lobbying politicians, political tactics which actually worked.

[mandmandam]

That was also within a few years of Bush W making moves to cut protest effectiveness, such as the free speech zones. Not to mention, there are plenty of examples of social media creating very effective protests, which then inspired heavy handed tactics in retaliation, with examples of this from all over the world.

Do you think what happened to OWS was just because of tweets lack of effectiveness? I don't believe that, and neither should you.

I did try to find the study you mentioned, as well as the podcast, but came up empty. Got a link handy?