During the past year, social media have taken on an important role for revolutionaries in the Middle East, protesters here at home and politicians across the world.

The Arab Spring’s explosive growth would have been largely impossible without the use of social media. Protesters looking to overthrow dictators and install democracies organized on Facebook and Twitter and shared YouTube videos of brutal crackdowns. Their actions online made it easier to mobilize, but governments would not have fallen without acts of courage, said Timothy Boudreau, Associate Professor of Journalism.

“Social media helped the protesters communicate and organize much more effectively, but the protesters posed a real threat only when they took to the streets and put their lives on the line,” Boudreau said.

Many countries have threatened to arrest bloggers who are accused of spreading “malicious rumors,” according to a report by Reuters examining the impact of social media. Twitter announced in late January it will allow for country-specific censorship, sparking outrage from internet users across the world.

Here in the United States, social media are also having an enormous impact on the political landscape.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has used social media to organize and mobilize thousands of protesters around the country, and eventually around the world, in a similar way to the Arab Spring protesters. This has allowed OWS to spread around the globe at a pace previously unimaginable.

Internet users have also had an impact on lawmakers on Capitol Hill. After websites like Wikipedia and Reddit shut down for a whole day to protest the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act  and Protect IP Act on Jan. 18, the number of opponents to the bill in Congress more than tripled from 31 to 101, according to ProPublica.org. The bill has since been shelved.

As the 2012 elections heat up, social media will continue to leave its mark on American politics.

“I think candidates are using all available tools, including social media, to reach voters,” said Orlando Perez, political science professor and department chairman. ”Studies have shown that repeated personal contact with the voters is the most effective way of getting people to support a candidate.”

President Barack Obama, who was the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media in a presidential campaign, recently held a question-and-answer session via YouTube and Google+ with a group of people, showing the appeal of directly speaking to voters without the use of traditional news outlets.

“Obama’s campaign seems more adept at using social media, but that might be because his supporters tend to skew younger than the GOP’s,” Boudreau said.

This is a 70-percent rise compared to the previous reporting period.

The transparency report said there were a total of 757 items requested to be removed and 92 content removal requests from government agencies and courts for reasons including allegations of defamation, copyright, privacy and security or claims that the content violates laws prohibiting hate speech and pornography.

Tim Boudreau, associate professor of journalism at Central Michigan University, said because Google is a private company, it can largely censor content.

“The First Amendment bars the government from abridging our rights, but it doesn’t bar private companies,” he said.

Boudreau said it is entirely up to the company whether or not to remove or allow content that was requested to be removed, unless the requests are dealing with copyright infringement.

“Google users and the American people generally, especially Internet users, are accustomed to a free-wheeling, anything-goes medium with few limits,” he said. “Those users would likely bring pressure to bear on Google if the company began acting as a censor.”

Ken Sanney, assistant professor of business law and regulation, said Google automatically has liability for copyright infringement because it is a common meeting place for technology users.

He said the Constitution created the copyright law before the First Amendment was enforced.

“The two have to be read to be harmonious with one another. The two have to co-exist,” Sanney said.

He said Google is not particularly infringing on free speech laws by accepting removal requests because every law has its limits.

“The limit to the first amendment is when you endanger others or you violate their property rights,” Sanney said.

Google is protected because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, he said, which provided a safe-harbor for Internet service providers from being held liable for copyright infringement.

“If Google receives a take-down notice for something that has been copyrighted, however, they must take it down,” he said.

As a private company, Google chose to comply in 63 percent of the cases for some sort of infringement, he said.

Sanney said it gets complicated to determine what is appropriate as far as what can be posted online.

“It’s hard to know who makes the determination as to what is a threat to national security,” he said. “What is threatening to national security to one might be pure political speech to another.”

He said Google is ultimately trying to manage their risk and reach a balance between being user-friendly and managing violations to copyright infringement and defamation.

“They are trying to comply with the law, but at the same time, have a robust business that people still want to post on,” Sanney said.

He said the law is having a hard time keeping up with fast-paced technology.

“It’s impossible to filter through everything,” Sanney said.

Facebook is so monolithic — where is one to go if they disagreed with the Facebook privacy policies? There was always the option to delete one’s Facebook profile altogether, but doing such a thing would quickly result in social isolation. As sad as that might be.

Then along comes Google with their own website, Google+. Although very similar to Facebook, Google+ offers two huge advantages that lured people to the site.

First, Google+ considers privacy an “opt-out” feature as opposed to Facebook’s “opt-in” policy. In other words, Google+ assumes you value privacy unless you state otherwise.

Second is the “circles” feature of Google+, which other than being a fantastic tool for sorting one’s content feed, adds an additional layer of privacy by easily allowing someone to include or exclude other users from seeing specific content.

Within days, Google+ was flooded with so many new accounts, some were saying it was only a matter of time before it overtook Facebook as the largest social networking website.

Both Google and Facebook began very publicly swiping at each other.

Live and learn.

Traffic to Google+ has fallen dramatically and it only seems to be losing already-fragile footing. Perhaps the victim of overinflated expectations, it appears as though Google+ is headed for “has-been” status. Even if people liked it better, the transition to a whole new social media platform was simply too much work for too little benefit.

Something very interesting has happened in the meantime, however. This week Facebook began rolling out its newest features, including an improved news feed. It is undeniable the renovated news feed feels a whole lot like that of Google+.

Additionally, over the past few weeks Facebook has unveiled brand-new privacy features, including a “lists” system that allows one to pick and choose who can see specific content they create. Sound familiar?

Facebook privacy settings are more streamlined and customizable than ever. In the past couple weeks it has become a significantly more secure website.

Although the Facebook competitor looks as if it might fizzle out without ever having made a dime on their social media project, Google has changed the world. Now the largest social networking site in the world, Facebook is responding to the demands of millions of Internet users to better their privacy standards.

We have Google+ to thank for that.

Google+ is Google’s latest approach to social networking.

“We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software,” Google’s blog reads. “We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships and your interests.”

According to the blog, the new social networking site offers “+Circles,” letting users choose what they share with certain people, allowing some information to remain restricted or private.

“It seems to me that (“+Circles”) are far easier than Facebook groups,” said Alan Rudy, associate professor of sociology.

Rudy said he has heard from people using Google+ that the two most attractive features of the new site are both “+Circles” and “+Huddle,” a group messaging experience.

Google+ also includes “+Sparks,” a feed of “highly contagious content” from across the Internet, a “+Hangouts feature,” allowing Foursquare-like check-ins at locations and a “+Mobile” phone-oriented feature.

“The excitement over Google+ was so intense that it completely swamped Google’s ability to sign up new users and deal with the demand,” Rudy said.

The site recently went to open registration after being invitation-only for several weeks, but it is still considered in a “field trial” testing state.

Mount Pleasant sophomore Chelsea Mills said she has not registered yet, but is excited to try it out.

“I really like Facebook, so the fact that (Google+) is supposed to be better, that makes me even more excited,” she said.

The only thing Mills said she was not excited about was the possibility of Google+ being another distraction from her classwork.

Rudy said he believe there is a very low chance of the Google+ network crashing.

“Anything’s possible, but I have to believe that these two services have massive redundancy and distributed servers along with very robust security administrations,” he said.

Rudy said a crash would be extremely unlikely through hacking or viruses, though other technical glitches could conceivably slow Google+’s service from time to time.

Apps to access the service are available for both Android and iPhone smartphones.

Cellphones, computers and the Internet are just three tools crucial to the social and daily life of a college student. But the Internet has not been around forever and it does not always work without a hitch.

“I’d like to see what would happen if cell phones and the Internet cut out,” said Cam Gates, a Rockford senior. “When the Internet cuts out at my apartment, my roommates freak out. We wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.”

Plymouth junior Jordyn Ward thought there might be some positives to the scenario.

“I think our society would be closer together,” she said. “People would be closer with one another because you wouldn’t be at home sitting online, checking emails and playing games.”

Gates said social life was much different before the Internet.

“Life was simpler,” he said. “People had to use social discourse to solve problems, not Facebook.”

Effect on education

The Internet has also changed the way educators teach their students.

“Blackboard and the Internet are remarkable,” said Ed Long, professor of human environmental studies. “For a lecture, I used to take books and have typed notes. Before PowerPoint, anything graphic or charts I had to have a hardcopy to put on the overhead.”

Long said 90 percent of the time he no longer brings any hard materials to class, with everything from lectures to notes uploaded to Blackboard.

Gates, Ward and Long said the use of the Internet also has its drawbacks.

“I don’t use the library for books anymore, I just look stuff up online,” Ward said. “That’s how I communicate with everyone and see what is going on with the world.”

Gates said students get all of their information from the Internet and rarely read books. Because of this, he said, critical thinking skills are lacking.

“Teachers don’t assign book reports anymore,” He said. “They just tell students to hop on the Internet to get their information. They expect information to be instant.”

Long said he has noticed the constant connection as a disruption to the classroom atmosphere.

“It’s detrimental to the educational experience,” he said. “It’s a huge distraction. I ask students not to use cell phones, but it happens anyway. I was bothered at first, but I just let it go.”

But, given the dangers, Gates and Long agree the Internet does more good than harm.

“I can go online to find a person who developed a certain plan, and pull up a video clip of the person who developed the plan talking about it,” Long said. “It’s easier to complement and add variety to what I’m teaching.”

That note was not put there by the average bathroom vandal, but by Taylor Boyle and her Operation Beautiful team.

“I found a note in the bathroom last year, and at the bottom was the Operation Beautiful website, so I Googled it,” the West Bloomfield freshman said. “I thought it was great, so I started leaving my own notes around campus and it just grew from there.”

The Operation Beautiful at CMU Facebook page states “the goal of Operation Beautiful is to end negative self-talk, educate people about some of the issues that we face and learn to love our bodies and ourselves.”

Boyle and her team leave notes all over campus. Some notes are left in random places and others are more strategically placed.

“We might put notes that say something like ‘you don’t need this, you’re beautiful the way you are’ on the back of a bottle of diet pills,” Boyle said.

Greenville freshman Kelsey Scheidel said the organization should be beneficial to CMU’s students.

“I think college girls especially need a program like this on campus,” Scheidel said.

Boyle also receives notes sometimes. She said she once discovered one on her mirror from her roommate that said, “You’re a great leader and you look fabulous.”

“I think bringing Operation Beautiful to Central is a great idea,” said Petoskey sophomore Casey Burkhart. “College students face enough stress with classes, so I think it’s awesome that Operation Beautiful can help us learn to not stress over our image.”

Leaving notes isn’t the only way Operation Beautiful plans to help people.

“We will also have group therapy at some of our meetings that focus on a certain group of people each time,” she said.

Operation Beautiful is not officially an RSO yet, but its popularity has already exceeded Boyle’s expectations with over 500 fans on Facebook.

The Internet has become an integral part of his life — a necessity — and through his daily use of the Web, “google.com” has firmly cemented itself within the muscle memory of his finger tips.

“I use Google every single day,” Scherba said. “In the case of the technology world, Google is like that technology father — everyone goes to it for resources.”

Google, a popular search engine service, is visited by about 44 percent of global Internet users on a daily basis, according to Alexa.com, a Web traffic monitoring service.

It also offers additional services to its users, including free e-mail accounts, calender and document programs.

Scherba really enjoys Google’s latest development: Google Instant, a feature that provides search results in real-time as a user types keywords in the search box.

“As you’re typing it the results start popping up, that’s way awesome,” he said. “It’s just as accurate as it always was.”

Paul Albee, a computer science assistant professor, said Google Instant is interesting from a purely technical perspective.

“I think it relies on really good network performance,” Albee said. “I’ve also noticed they engage in a little bit of content filtering on the fly. I find that troubling.”

Albee said by filtering content on Google Instant, Google can direct the way people search.

“I believe it is concerning that they’re now making judgement calls on what they want a search to provide versus what they don’t want it to provide,” he said.

Scherba said Google plays an important role in the life of an average student. “We have research projects and papers to type,” the Flushing sophomore said. “It’s pretty much the number one site I go to when I need to search something.”

A lot to offer

Albee said Google has a lot to offer its users.

“I think what you’re going to see is that Google is hitting the major needs of the student,” he said. “You’ve got your e-mail, you’ve got your calender, there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there.”

Albee uses several Google products, including its e-mail, calender, document and “app” services.

However, as Google continues to extend its reach in the Web, Albee said the company may be treading dangerous waters.

“They’re expanding into too many things,” he said. “They may run into the situation where they are diverting their resources into too many directions and lose their focus … They have to decide where they put their resources, what they put their emphasis on.”

Albee said Google’s services, while free for its users, are extremely expensive to operate and he worries it may someday charge its users for extra services.

Midland sophomore Jim Bicknell said he remembers the pre-Google world.

“It was like the Dark Ages of the Internet,” he said. “You needed to be well-versed in Web browsing to find anything.”

My sister and I were discussing it yesterday morning and were talking about what life was like without the Internet searching powerhouse and she said something quite interesting.

She said “I didn’t need Google until it was there.”

Google provided what everyone needed, but never knew they needed. It offered a fast and simple way to get the information one needed. Its search engine was much better than its early competitors such as Ask Jeeves or early Yahoo.

I remember when I first discovered the glory that was Google. It was felt like discovering a new planet or species of dinosaur.

I feel as if everything I do on the Web is Google-related. If I am having trouble locating something on a website my next step it to search Google for what I need.

My email is Gmail, my browser is Google Chrome. Everything I do on the Web goes through Google.

But the wild thing is I can barely remember the Internet without it. What was there before Google?

One of my friends talked about using Ask Jeeves and playing Oregon Trail. Those were the days. The days where if we had a question about something, we’d ask for help or open a book.

That was another thing my friend said when I asked her what life was like before Google; “I used encyclopedias.”

Encyclopedias! She probably used the dictionary as well.

On my desk sits three large reference books: A dictionary, thesaurus and a New York Public Library Desk Reference. They look awesomely fancy, but have about three years of dust accumulation.

I have probably checked my Facebook more in the past week than I have opened those books since I’ve been in college.

Now, I am not saying it is Google’s fault. What I am saying is that Google gave us an easier way to do things. If I am having trouble figuring out what a word means, Googled! If I can’t spell something, Googled!

Google has replaced our dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. In this case, Goliath beat David.

I don’t necessarily think that we are worse off with the existence of Google; I think it is an amazing tool. But it has drastically changed the way people do everything.

Google’s mission statement from their corporate information page is as follows: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I often hear people joke about how Google is trying to take over the world. I don’t think they’re trying, they are doing it.

Not that it’s a bad thing. I’d rather have Google in charge than, say, Facebook.

The new tool from Google combines several applications such as Google Reader and Picasa with Twitter or Facebook-like functionality.

The service was unveiled Feb. 9 and is accessible with a Google account from its e-mail service, Gmail.

“All my contacts are right there,” said Joshua Trimble, a Central Michigan University alumnus. “It’s my ideal Internet platform.”

Trimble, 27, is an IT Service and repairman at Carmen-Ainsworth Community Schools and resides in Flint.

His favorite feature of Google Buzz is how it incorporates all his Google services into one easily shared location.

He said he enjoyed that he could take a picture with his Motorola Droid phone, upload it to Google’s Picasa Web Albums and have his Web Albums account automatically sync with his Buzz account and notify all the users following him.

Trimble also appreciates Buzz’s synchronization with his Google Reader account, as it allows him to share an article over Buzz with his followers and take part in a dialogue about it, all from his Gmail inbox.

“Google is really expanding, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it,” Trimble said.

Information overload?

That rapid expansion is a concern for some people uncomfortable with the amount of information people readily feed into Google’s databases.

One blogger has already voiced her dissatisfaction that her abusive ex-boyfriend and his friends were made to automatically follow her Google Buzz account, which had her location and employment listed, according to a report by Business Insider.

Google released an update which revised Buzz’s automatic following features, though privacy issues remain a concern.

Associate professor of sociology Alan Rudy quoted University of Texas Professor Clay Spinuzzi’s Twitter Account.

“Buzz follows Google’s strategy of rapid innovation, rapid controlled failure, internal competition, disrupting competitors,” Spinuzzi said.

Rudy is an active user of several social networking sites and tools such as Twitter and Digsby, which he uses personally and professionally.

“My basic sense, at this point, is that students who use (Facebook) for status updates, (instant message) through (Facebook), AIM or some other software, and text regularly on their phone aren’t going to have much more use for Buzz than they have for Twitter,” Rudy said in an e-mailed statement.

Google’s new service will combine its search engine capabilities with streaming and purchasing functions powered by music sites such as lala.com and MySpace’s ILike application.

“I figured it was only a matter of time before Google launched something like this,” said Marysville junior Ryan Wurmlinger. “I personally can’t wait to try it out. I’m constantly looking for new Web sites that you can listen to music on.”

After searching for an artist on the site, the new function will provide users with song samples, information about albums and artist biographies.

Social networking Web site Facebook also is teaming up with lala.com to power a new music gifting application that enables users to purchase song MP3s or “websongs” and send them to friends.

The site is expanding on current gifting applications that allow users to purchase virtual plants and pictures of birthday cakes with a credit card and send them to their friends.

“I think it’s logical for social networking sites to try to offer services to increase their usability with their users,” said Broadcast and Cinematic Arts instructor Trey Stohlman. “However, I think they also need to consult their users to find out what services they would like to see added before they just start making changes. I know several people upset about the recent changes to the Facebook interface.”

MyMusic

Google and Facebook are not the only Web sites going through transitions.

According to the Financial Times, MySpace is officially moving from a social networking site to focus more on music and entertainment.

“Facebook is not our competition,” MySpace CEO and former Facebook executive Chris Dewolfe told the Financial Times. “We’re very focused on a different space.”

MySpace is still one of the Web’s most visited sites at 100 million users, but is behind Facebook’s 300 million users.

MySpace recently teamed with iTunes giving users the ability to buy songs without leaving the site.

“I think this is a great idea for MySpace,” Stohlman said. “They know they can’t compete, but also know a lot users and industry professionals used the service for music distribution and promotion. I think they’ve found their niche and are making smart decisions at this point.”

Smiths Creek junior Deedra McKeand also agrees with MySpace’s new business model.

“I think it’s a good move for MySpace because no one really goes on that site for social networking anymore,” McKeand said. “The only use I get out of MySpace is for checking out bands and listening to music.”