""I'm quite surprised at the posts here dismissing them as a tool for change""


I am not sure that folks on here have in fact done that, at lease in the way you seem to describe. I suspect it was more to do with this specific situation, and wild claims that seem to have been made that do not seem to be backed up in any logical type of evidence (considering other significant factors are also in play).


Social media is surely a growing factor in information sharing. But,unfortunately reliable techniques to measure the effectiveness of this avenue seem in many cases to be deficient, compared to many other traditional information sharing avenues. I suspect this will evolve, but, IMO, it is not there yet in mostv cases.


I often think of how one could measure the effectiveness of dumping leaflets out of airplanes when I consider many of the wild (and unmeasured) claims as to the effectiveness of some social media initiatives.