Wikipedia defines Society as: A large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

Social Media and Social Networking are by their very names large social groupings, but their nature strips geography and political authority right out of the equation.

What we are seeing now in Egypt is a society (that was quite stable for 30+ years under current political rule) that has reached a chaotic level of social unrest and one could make the case that social networks have played a major role in the shift of Egyptian culture and other Middle Eastern countries like Yemen, Tunisia, and Jordan. Only time will tell which country will make the list next, and it is only a matter of time.

Social Networks are the embodiment of American/Western ideals. They provide a platform for free-speech, free-thought, and a window to the western world that is larger than any other window. Signing up for twitter is like getting your U.S. Citizenship simply by choosing a screen name.

As repressed societies adopt and become accustomed to using these networks to freely express themselves, it becomes increasingly more difficult to revert to repression when one walks out the front door. It is difficult to keep your mouth shut as your government further entrenches the ideal that the only good voice is a quiet one.

Sure, there are other factors involved in the Egyptian revolt. As it stands now Egypt doesn’t know what it wants and has turned to violence to express the feeling. One could argue that years of repression manifests itself in violence when expression suddenly becomes necessary.

Never before have massive groups of supporters been able to mobilize and gather with such speed and precision and for that we can thank social media. Whether it is a political rally in Toronto or Ottawa in support of change in Egypt, or a veritable flash mob in Tahrir square (a mob hurling molotov cocktails is perhaps the best definition of flash mob) gathering at strategic times, social media has given ordinary citizens a power they’ve never before experienced.

That is what we are seeing here and you can’t get away from it. Even the news of the chaos is being reported primarily via twitter. The Egyptian government took the whole country offline in an attempt to put pandora back in her box and Western society stepped right up to the plate to make twitter available via voice command and cell-phone networks - thanks Google!

This new found power will bring about huge changes globally. It looks as though Egypt will never put the lid back on this. We’ve seen other dictatorships in utter unease at the realization that the power of the people is real.

When hugely different cultural groups are all tossed into a “global society” aspects of the different cultures are certain to trickle and then pour into each other and create a social melting pot the likes of which tv, radio and newswires could never have imagined.