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.

Ben Harris/Senior Reporter

To my venerable ancestors and forefathers, I have this to say; your life must have stunk.

To my children, children’s children and so on; I am jealous beyond words.

The reason, of course, is Facebook and Twitter.

Even the generation before mine is disadvantaged. Myspace is an old farmer who plows his fields with oxen and chews on wheat to help his concentration during the annual barn repainting.

But now, with most of the Internet world on Facebook, things that were never before even thinkable are a reality. It’s like the world’s yearbook.

Now, I can keep track of all the people I went to high school with and see the minute details of the everyday lives of acquaintances. I can know who’s working from 4 to 8 p.m., who ate peanut butter and jelly for lunch and who’s just so sick and tired of being sick and tired. It’s like I never left my hometown at all.

It will only get better. With Facebook to soon go public, the company will reach new heights, achieve things greater than any other company before it. What new ways will the company create to be even more connected? I can only dream.

All I know is, the updates to my smartphone don’t come fast enough. What if I were to miss a notification?

In fact, there has to be a way to integrate Facebook and our lives even more. Why not register for classes through Facebook or Twitter? That way, it is easier to compare schedules with friends. Because who wants to be in a class without any friends? But then, why risk not having classes with friends at all?

Why can’t professors record their lectures and post them to Facebook, having the class discuss it in a free-for-all web forum? There’s no way to be more connected than that. It’s efficient, too; everyone with their laptops in class tends to just sits on Facebook anyway, so why not cut out the middleman? The middleman being reality.

And then there’s Twitter. It’s like having all my friends talk to me at once. The ones who have an account, that is. Those who don’t have an account can’t even be considered friends anymore.

What I’m pressing for is Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networks to combine like Power Rangers to form a super social network. If that were to happen, it would be unstoppable and immune to grumpy old people who don’t get the Internet and lame people who think they’re too cool to poke me back on Facebook.

When that happens, and it will, the world as we all know it will change for the better. It will be the utopia our fathers and grandfathers dreamed up for us; the great social machine, a mechanism for us all to see who’s tan, who’s dating who and who from our graduating class just got pregnant.

All the gossip we wanted for so many years, laid out right in front of us.

Instagram Photos by Mike Mulholland and Amelia Eramya.

Some Instagram photos are turning iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch users into instant photographers.

Appearing in the App Store in October 2010, the app currently has more than 50 million users. According to Mashable.com, an Android version of the app is currently under development, though an official release date has yet to be announced.

The app is a “fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through photos,” according to the site’s page.

Previously, photos could only be visible on the program itself, but now users can share their photos on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr with a couple taps on their touch screen. The photos can also be viewed on webstagram.com.

Similar to Twitter, people can “follow” the posts of their friends and even celebrities.

“I follow more celebrities than friends,” said Escanaba junior Chantell LaForest. “Justin Bieber and Selena (Gomez), of course, and Zooey Deschanel.”

LaForest said she takes photos of everything, especially her meals.

“If I feel something is noteworthy, I’ll snap it and post it to Instagram,” she said. “Food is always important.”

One of Instagram’s most popular features are photography filters and effects. Of the 16 effects one can apply to their average-looking photo, LaForest said X-Pro II, which adds a vintage look to photos, is her favorite.

For LaForest’s roommate, photos of her puppy and hedgehog are the stars of Chesaning junior Kaylee Turnwald’s profile.

“I like that it’s like Twitter, only with pictures,” she said.

Grand Rapids junior Michael Sundt said the app is just an excuse for people to think they are artists.

“I hate how people take pictures of every day, ordinary things, add an effect and suddenly they think it’s some great thing,” he said. “One photo that bothered me the most was when someone took a picture of a single cup of coffee and posted it on Twitter.”

If the photo doesn’t have any meaning behind it, Sundt said he thinks it should stay off the web.

“It’s basically like Garage Band for photos,” Sundt said. “People can go on, take a photo, do whatever they want with it and call it their own.”

Although Sundt disagrees with many of the photos people post, he said the Stitchagram.com website is a good idea for Instagram’s business.

Instagram is gaining favor in the corporate world as well. In October 2011, Ford utilized the photo app, launching a six-week contest called “Fiestagram” to promote their new automobile, the Ford Fiesta, according to media.ford.com. European users submitted their Instagram photos of the different car features and technology to win prizes ranging from being featured in real-life galleries to winning the Ford Fiesta.

Stitchagram.com offers users the chance to create personalized pillows with their Instagram photos. Although the app is free, the pillows come at a price. Each 15-inch pillow, created with either four large photos or 25 small ones, will set a customer back about $45.

While resting on an Instagram pillow, people can also flip through a book holding a collection of their favorite phone photography. Blurb.com allows users to create the books and go on to sell them on the website.

Whether used to capture your hedgehog’s first steps or a well-crafted cappuccino, each of this app’s more than 1.3 million daily uploaded images say more than 140 words.

Various departments and organizations at Central Michigan University are utilizing Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to stay better connected with students, prospective students and alumni.

Sarah Barnard, outreach coordinator for the Study Abroad Program, said she uses the “Central Michigan University Study Abroad” Facebook page to keep students informed and enthusiastic about the programs offered.

“We love to post pictures of students’ trips,” Barnard said. “I also put up articles related to the benefits of studying abroad or journals that students keep while they’re away. Things like that shed a lot of light on the study abroad program for students who may be curious.”

The athletics department uses social media sites on a bigger scale, rolling out 12 Facebook pages and 13 Twitter accounts within the last year.

“(They) are used to strengthen our brand, start conversations and deliver information directly to students, alumni and fans,” said Director of Communications Jason Kaufmans. “The department and each of our 11 sports has an official Facebook page and Twitter account managed by our social media team, and Athletics Director Dave Heeke has a Twitter account that he manages.”

Director of Information Services at the Charles V. Park Library Timothy Peters is in charge of the Facebook page for the main library.

“Using social media is a good way to get our message to a place where we know students are. It’s another avenue for us to promote ourselves,” he said. “I post information about library closings, changes in hours and reminders about services we provide. It’s good to jog people’s memories and remind them that we’re here to help.”

Kaufman said using social media is a necessity in today’s climate, where fans want information delivered directly to them instead of having to find it themselves.

“As future students of CMU get involved with social media at an earlier age, they come in with an expectation that our organization is integrated in the social media world,” he said.

Barnard said using social media is the best way to stay in contact with students.

“It’s a great way to get the word out and share information,” she said. “Facebook and Twitter are new and hip ways to stay connected with students.”

The athletics department plans to continue to utilize social media in the future.

“We are continually looking for new ways to reach our fans with social media,” Kaufman said. “Future plans include building more awareness of our social media pages, providing unique content that is only available with social media and measuring the effectiveness of our efforts.”

Local businesses and nationwide chains are using Twitter to remind potential customers of their presence.

While some Tweet specials, others take a different approach.

Max & Emily’s Eatery, 125 E. Broadway St., does not just use Twitter for tweeting their soup of the day.

“We’re trying to enter into the conversation,” said Tim Brockman, owner of Max & Emily’s.

Max and Emily’s became involved with their Facebook account, and one of the employees opened a Twitter, Brockman said.

Brockman said the sandwich shop uses @MaxandEmilys to stay in touch with the community and integrate into their online habits.

During the winter months, Brockman said the Twitter account invited pictures of ugly sweaters but did not see a lot of pictures.

“We’re doing it for the community,” Brockman said. “It makes Mount Pleasant a more interesting place to live.”

Ginkgo Tree Inn and River Bluff Bistro, 309 N. Main St., has a young Twitter account, @ginkgotree309, created on Jan. 23.

Innkeeper McKenzie Bade said the business is also young, as it opened in October.

Bade said she plans to tweet room specials and dinner specials for the dining establishment adjoined to the inn.

However, more immediate specials are available.

“If readers bring in a copy of this article, they can receive a free dessert and non-alcoholic beverage,” Bade said.

Many businesses are using Twitter as a way to remind potential customers of their presence.

Six months ago, Port Huron senior Kyle Gostinger set up the Twitter account for his place of work, Kaya Coffee & Tea Co., 1029 S. University Ave.

“It’s more acceptable to send out four tweets than it is to update a Facebook status that many times,” Gostinger said.

Computers around campus are littered with open tabs of social networking sites like Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter, Gostinger said.

@Kayacoffeehouse often tweets their soup of the day, specialty drinks and slow times at the shop.

“We get a few new followers every day,” Gostinger said. “Every week, we get more people who mention us.”

Gostinger is most active on Kaya’s Twitter, often conversing with those who make inquires about the coffee shop.

“Hopefully I can pass it along to someone who can maintain it and keep it up,” Gostinger said.

Some chain businesses located in Mount Pleasant with Twitter accounts include McDonald’s, Burger King, Tropical Smoothie, Buffalo Wild Wings, Coldstone Creamery, Rally’s and Jimmy Johns.

The former Twitter accounts are great reads and genuinely make me laugh or follow up on whatever story they’ve posted or re-tweeted. The latter is the reason I never wanted to have a Twitter account in the first place. However, over the past month or so in particular, I’ve realized how much power Twitter has.

I’ve had a Facebook account for a few years and know the extents of its power pretty well. Using Twitter, however, to promote shows or other things that might involve my company, Lansingmusic.tv, or myself really made me realize the power 140 characters actually has.

Over the past year or so, I had been putting together a local compilation to be released in Lansing, and I used Twitter (as well as Facebook) in the months leading up to its release to promote it. I had many people re-tweeting and posting the events and the music pages involved with the release. In addition to that, I also had some local print press for my release. The use of Twitter and the traditional media like newspapers and radio helped the album release I put on to be a major success.

It sure helped me from a promotions and company point-of-view but, as an individual, it’s a totally different story.

Having my own account doesn’t solve the problem of my not-so-clever sense of humor; I’m no comedian. I’m usually quiet and awkward and always have the out-of-place feeling where ever I go.

Posting details about myself and my life that the whole world could potentially read and re-tweet is not something I’m keen on. All this, let alone feeling obliged to come up with a clever and witty update to whatever my situation might be turned me off of Twitter in the first place.

I’m really used to writing in long form (like this column shows), so having to limit my thoughts to 140 characters is really, really difficult — especially when it comes to music.

Everyone has one topic they could talk for hours and hours about. I could talk about the greatness of UK post-punk band “Joy Division” (post-punk is an off shoot of punk rock mainly active from 1975 to 1983 or so) or how much I love “Criminal Minds” when it’s on A&E. The same goes for “Law and Order: SVU”.

But tweeting “OMG I love Law and Order: SVU,” with probably even less grammatical accuracy, isn’t (again) the most appealing thing in the world.

I don’t hate Twitter, but I don’t like it either. From a selfless promotion standpoint, it’s pretty good … but I hate being “that guy” who’s constantly promoting my new projects and whatnot.

On the other hand, it worked wonders when I did exactly that. Having a personal Twitter account means people can read my thoughts, if I wish to post them.

That’s the key, like with every other social media platform: watch what you’re posting. I’ll keep what I want to myself but share something I think others might find interesting.

I guess I’m still on the fence about this whole thing. We’ll see where the next few weeks takes me. Maybe I’ll become obsessed with it, or I’ll start neglecting it; we will see.

Accidentally, SOPA has the power to break the majestic spell the interwebs has cast over all of us.

As the sad cases of Four Loko and white sunglasses demonstrate, sometimes people need help stopping their bad behavior. SOPA could be the determining factor in letting us get back to friendships and laundry and all the other wonderful things the actual, present world has to offer.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet. I love cats in boxes, Japanese square watermelons and foreign soccer highlights featuring Arabic announcers losing their minds. But if our congress manages to demolish the web to the degree of SOPA, I might finally learn German or clean out my car.

There’s a great big planet of opportunity out there, probably, but I’ve been way too busy watching videos of camel spiders fighting fire ants to see it.

Last week I went out to dinner with my family. We ended up going to Red Lobster because my mom’s iPhone said it exists, and the Outback was busy.

As we began looking through our menus, my mom noticed, with some glee, a QR code tucked away in the corner of her menu. She took out her phone, scanned the code, and proceeded to waste three minutes watching a video of lobster cooking on a wood-fired grill.

Red Lobster is no better than the rest of us. They can’t even get down to the business of selling us their food without being distracted by some useless Internet bauble. My mom was so distracted by a video of long since dumpstered food shot on a film lot somewhere in California that she forgot to order the actual lobster anxiously awaiting a horrible death in a large tank 10 feet away from our table.

Distracting us from seafood? Further proof the Internet is ruining everything.

QR codes are just one sign of the ongoing meshing of the internet with our actual lives. Slowly the digital world has come to dominate our thoughts and actions, and increasingly the actual things around us.

An America in which SOPA has grenaded the vibrant online marketplace might resemble our last golden age: the early 1990’s.

It would be a country where everyone can unironically wear cut-off jeans and whoop along to Tag Team’s amazing “Whoop (There it is).”

We could live our lives without having to Tweet about what we’re eating or “check in” at the proctologists on Foursquare or feel compelled to take an “artistic” half-blurry photograph every time we pass a leaf or an old stop sign no one cares about.

We would be free.

General Manager Steve Cline, 24, of Lapeer sits in the middle of an empty Menna's Joint restaurant lobby in Mount Pleasant as he watches President Barack Obama's address the U.S. to inform the public of Osama bin Laden's death late on May 1, 2011. "It's crazy! It's really hard to fathom yet," he said. "For his involvement in 9/11, this brings justice to all of us since the war has been leading on for more than a decade. What a huge accomplishment. It needed to be done. It's a big victory for the U.S. It's all come full circle. I don't really consider myself patriotic, but this installs the best in all of us as Americans, and in me." (Jake May | Staff Photographer)

On May 1 President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, the man most directly responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Before Obama even made the announcement in a late-night televised speech from the East Room of the White House, news and speculation spread through Twitter and other social networks.

More than an hour before the speech, Keith Urbahn, chief of staff for the Office of Donald Rumsfield, tweeted, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot Damn.”

Social media continued to spread the news as Facebook exploded with posts about bin Laden’s death. According to CNN.com, within hours of the news, a new Facebook page “Osama bin Laden is DEAD” was created.

Obama said bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan following intelligence indicating his location in the country. There were no civilian casualties and no Americans were harmed, Obama said.

In addition to bin Laden, three men were killed during the 40-minute raid, one believed to be his son and the other two his couriers. A woman was also killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, and two others were wounded.

The body of bin Laden was later buried at sea.

The announcement of bin Laden’s death came nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks where about 3,000 people were killed.

Crowds gathered all across the United States in celebration of the demise of the well-known terrorist, as chants of,  ”U.S.A! U.S.A!” and flag-waving took place outside the White House, in Times Square and at the ground zero site.

Obama said the U.S. was first informed of a possible lead on bin Laden’s whereabouts in August. Obama said the capture or killing of bin Laden has been the top priority of the U.S. since he received the intelligence that bin Laden was in Pakistan.

The president said bin Laden’s death is the “most significant achievement to date in our effort to defeat al-Qaeda,” but cautioned that the terrorist organization would continue to pursue attacks against the U.S.

Starting Monday, as questions are received, SGA members will retweet the question and then tweet answers.

Frequently asked questions and answers will appear on SGA’s new website, which they are in the process of creating.

“In addition, I am working with Vince to create a CMU SGA YouTube page where we will answer these questions in a ‘Weekly Address,’” said SGA Secretary Michelle Shamaly.

SGA wants to use every avenue to ensure students’ concerns are heard, SGA President Vince Cavataio said in a press release.

The Mount Pleasant native said she averages around seven hours a day using her computer, listening to iTunes or surfing the web.

“I use my computer the most, but I do watch TV a lot, too,” she said. “I like to keep my Facebook feed up to date and I check my emails constantly.”

Products like the iPhone and iPad, and social networking sites such as Facebook, are transforming students’ social lives.

“I’d say that technology is affecting my social skills, but not in a negative way,” Ranzenberger said. “I’ve learned to interact with different types of people.”

Shelby Township sophomore Brian Piper agrees that using technology affects how he interacts with people.

“I rely on Facebook to communicate with people rather than talking to people in person,” he said. “I have more time to think about what I am going to say and make sure it comes out right.”

Although Ranzenberger said technology has not negatively affected her social life, it has altered her personal relationships.

“A downfall is that I don’t spend as much time with my family because we’re all wired in,” she said.

Ranzenberger said she has become addicted to Facebook in the past.

“When I finally got offline for a couple days, it was relaxing and gave my eyes a break from the harsh computer screen,” she said.

Michele Kissick, a Royal Oak sophomore, said she felt lost without her phone when it broke last semester.

“Sometimes I rely on my phone too much,” Kissick said. “I’m always texting, tweeting or on Facebook. With new apps and updates, it keeps me constantly attached to my Blackberry.”

Director of Career Services Julia Sherlock said this generation of students is better networked than any generation preceding them.

However, she said students should still push themselves more to network when looking for a career.

“Social media is a tool, not an answer,” she said. “People need to understand the power of the written word and how that impacts for good or bad the decision that employers make.”

Sherlock said addiction to technology is not a problem they have seen in the career center.

“I think people who are comfortable with talking to people in person will always be comfortable with that no matter how much technology plays a role in their lives,” Sherlock said. “I don’t think it will create hermitage.”

In terms of developing social skills and sophistication, she said being addicted to technology may stifle students maturity.

She suggests to students who are more comfortable in the world of technology to find a career where that is necessary.