Social Media Changing Lives

Guest Blog By Ibrahim Lahoud

The place, AUB Issam Fares Hall
The date, December 16, 2011
The event, Social Media Collaborative

Introduction keynote followed by the National Anthem. We all stand up. On the giant screen, one of the event posters appears. It is the one with Octavia Nasr’s photo from the CNN days. The message was about how Social Media can change a life.

And there it struck me!

Social media does not change “a” life. It changes “lives”.

The irony, was that Octavia’s photo appears along the Anthem that celebrates Independence, freedom and “Our word and our endeavor” (Kawlouna wal ‘Amal).

There could not be a better coincidence, even better; it’s providence.

Octavia symbolizes both sides of the coin. The freedom of expression, and the expression of freedom.

Does Social Media change lives? Indeed it does. In the case of someone like Octavia, it can only be to the better.

You tweet what you feel, when you feel it. That is the purpose of Twitter. Irrelevant of how controversial or not your tweet is, if anyone asks you to “be careful” about it, you’re either in Iran, or you live in a democracy-covered dictatorship.

Yes, we are responsible of what we tweet, and should tweet responsibly, but then again so is driving, drinking and every other behavior in life. Social media became another mainstream behavior in life.

In Octavia’s case, she was judged by a media who defeated the purpose of Social… Pun intended!





You can find out more about Ibrahim Lahoud "Eby" @ebyking and read his enticing blog posts at http://ilahoud.wordpress.com/

Read more about AUB's Social Collaborative SM Changing lives here
or here

Special thank to Mohammad Hijazi @mhijazi for handling my topic and my involvement with the utmost professionalism, respect and compassion.