The purpose of this thread is to explore the impact of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking technologies on politics.

This dailykos.com thread gave me the idea for this thread:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/14/742453/-High-Definition-Democracy- "High-Definition Democracy"
by georgia10 ; Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 04:56:56 PM PDT

As such I'll begin this thread with an excerpt from that dairy:

"One need look no further than the 140-character updates streaming in from Iran on Twitter, the photostreams pouring in on Flickr, and the blossoming Facebook pages to understand and appreciate the revolutionary effect social media has had on how civilizations engage in and react to democracy.

The saying popping up over the last several hours has already become cliche: the revolution will not be televised, it will be Twittered. Stripping away the hyperbole of that statement and we are left with the very real and grounded fact that the way citizens across the world organize, react, and participate has forever been altered by the cornucopia of 21st century mediums, each of which presents a new platform for how citizens interact with and even select their government."

[italics used in the original dairy]

-snip-

Do you agree with this excerpt? What example/s can you share of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other "21st century mediums" having an impact on "how citizens interact with and even select their government?" What positive or negative consequences could be the result of this new technology and politics?

Thanks in advance for your participation in this thread.