...to Facebook helps movements unite

After reading this article, I started thinking about McLuhan's theory about the medium being the message. I think that perhaps that is the case with this story --the Facebook medium is the message, not so much what is being rallied for.

For example: more often than not, when I'm invited to join any controversial groups on the site, I ignore the invitation. It can be something I completely believe in, but because of the public nature of a social-networking site, I prefer to remain "virtually" neutral. For me, I feel like the medium allows me that neutrality, and despite whatever content is posted, my right to neutrality remains. However, I believe that is my own interpretation and use of the site, whereas others can use it in completely the opposite way, and it is true enough to their own interpretation of the medium. As we see with the young man who eventually got enough support for his cause (a $500,000 skate park) to enact action, or president Obama's use of it to gain votes, it can be used in a successful way to support causes or rally people together. For myself though, I feel like any virtual proclamation of my beliefs would not only be contrived and insincere, but also so far one way or the other that I would feel trapped by the group creator's beliefs of the subject.

But besides all that, I guess this case's application of Facebook was cool enough.