Occupy Protesters Are Building a Facebook for the 99%

hypnosec writes "In 2011, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook helped protesters to spread their cause and garner support across the world. What started out as a minor protest comprised of a handful of people turned into a worldwide protest thanks to the use of social media. According to Wired, after seeing the impact social media platforms have had on protests worldwide, several Occupy Wall Street protesters are creating their own social networking platform aimed at spreading awareness about particular causes and rallying people for protests."

Take a page from the Tea Party

[Anonymous Coward]

The Occupy movement needs to elect officials to political office like the Tea Party if they are going to make any meaningful difference. If the Tea Party (1%) can manage to *change the balance of US congress* than surely Occupy can if they represent 99% of the population.

Is it still September?

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither me nor any of my technically minded friends are so cynical and jaded as half the posters here on /. I'm wondering if this "recent" influx of people who:

1. disparage anything resembling empathy with other people
2. claim any invention from China is plagiarized from the US
3. display outright loathing for any other fields than IT or the military
4. claim to know exactly how to fix the budget/NASA/Iraq/Terr'ism
5. nitpick irrelevant details in posts or comments and willfully disregarding the issue being addressed
or
5. revel in any excuse for counter-culture chest-pounding by demeaning people who like things that are popular ...are really just a sudden influx of younger, less experienced and therefore more bombastic users.

Where are you, oldfags? Those of you who still care whether other people live or die, I mean.

Re:They're still around?

[flurp]

You can make a real difference by volunteering and getting people out to vote in the next election (e.g. the Tea Party, which actually accomplished something in that respect)

If you call sending a different color of corrupt, useless politicians to Washington "accomplishing something", then sure, they accomplished something.

Re:They're still around?

[Baloroth]

I remember thinking this. The Tea Party and the OWS (both at the beginning) had much the same message. The trouble was, the OWS people focused most of their energy towards the wrong place, and went about it in the wrong way. Looking like a bunch of losers and druggies isn't a good way to spread your message. And the Tea Party allowed itself to get co-opted by a bunch of loons. Actually, come to think of it they both did.

Re:1% vs 99%

[dyingtolive]

Honestly, I think most of the anger directed at them is cognitive dissonance. That's just my theory.

Anecdote time: Amongst the people I work with, the only one I know of who has a strong opinion (other than me) one way or another about the OWS crowd is a punk 22 year old who lives in a house his parents own, is married with two kids, and has, in general, everything still provided for him. The funniest thing is that, contrary to the popular opinion of the OWS crowd being spoiled brats, this one absolutely HATES them with a passion.

I think back to the kind of person I was when I was his age. Though I hardly had anything provided for me to speak of (lest of all a house), I probably wouldn't have liked the OWS people either. I was kind of a brainwashed Randist who believed that hard work and perseverance were all you needed, and the world really was a meritocracy. I believed in the American Dream. I hit the real world though, and realized what a lie it all was. I see the OWS group as a means to try to pull the wool from people's eyes, and the backlash they get is simply resentment for that.