Future Internet 2012, 4, 83-91 doi:10.3390/fi4010083 future internet ISSN 1999-5903 www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet Essay When Atoms Meet Bits: Social Media, the Mobile Web and Augmented Revolution Nathan Jurgenson University of Maryland, 2112 Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA E-Mail: nathanjurgenson@gmail.com Tel.: +1-301-405-6392 Received: 29 November 2011 in revised form: 12 January 2012 / Accepted: 18 January 2012 / Published: 23 January 2012 Abstract: The rise of mobile phones and social media may come to be historically coupled with a growing atmosphere of dissent that is enveloping much of the globe. The Arab Spring, UK Riots, Occupy and many other protests and so-called ���flash-mobs��� are all massive gatherings of digitally-connected individuals in physical space and they have recently become the new normal. The primary role of technology in producing this atmosphere has, in part, been to effectively link the on and the offline. The trend to view these as separate spaces, what I call ���digital dualism���, is faulty. Instead, I argue that the digital and physical enmesh to form an ���augmented reality���. Linking the power of the digital���creating and disseminating networked information���with the power of the physical��� occupying geographic space with flesh-and-blood bodies���is an important part of why we have this current flammable atmosphere of augmented revolution. Keywords: augmented reality collective action mobile phones occupy protest social media 1. Introduction Much will likely be written about the role of new technologies in the current wave of massive collective action that is currently burgeoning across the globe. From the Arab Spring to the UK Riots to the Occupy movement, I am writing in the midst of a moment of global massive collective gatherings. And all of this is happening simultaneously with the historically recent rise of mobile ���smart��� phones and social media. Before looking specifically at how these technologies may or may not have been used in these massive gatherings of collective action, I want to start by stepping back OPEN ACCESS

Future Internet 2012, 4 84 and pondering a bigger picture: It is my contention that it will be of no historical coincidence that the rise of mobile phones and social media will be forever linked with this global spread of mass mobilizations of people in physical space. While the outcomes are unclear at this time, we are witnessing these mobilizations across much of the world, including the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and South America (which have been partially captured by the label ���Arab Spring���). Riots (large ones recently in the UK) and ���flash mobs��� are increasingly making the news. And the Occupy movement that started in the United States on Wall Street has spread across the country and even the globe. While it is much too early to tell what consequence the Occupy movement will have, there certainly is a feeling that we have entered into a new political moment one of massive mobilizations of people attempting to change the existing order of society. Some have been overtly political, such as the Arab Spring, Occupy or the Tea Party, while others are not of the traditional sign-holding, slogan-chanting sort, including the 2010 Sanity/Fear Rallies in the United States or the UK Riots in 2011 (however even these events most certainly had political antecedent and consequence). The first wave of reactions to the role of technology in these recent revolutions, specifically those in the Arab world, was of many journalists and pundits calling these ���Twitter��� or ���Facebook��� revolutions [1] as well as the counter-reaction that these terms offensively reduce vast political movements with complex histories to social networking sites [2���4]. However, calling the Arab Spring a ���Twitter Revolution��� or, as Jillian York [5] says, ���Not a Twitter, Not a WikiLeaks: Human Revolution��� both fail to account for how technology and society, the digital and the physical, media and humans, have imploded and augmented each other. We cannot focus on one side, be it human or technology, without deeply acknowledging the other. This perspective might best be summarized by N. Katherine Hayles [6], ���If media alone are not enough to determine our situation, neither is embodiment. [���] Embodiment will not become obsolete because it is essential to human being, but it can and does transform in relation to environmental selective pressures, particularly through interactions with technology���. Simply, much of this debate, from all points of view, often suffers from the same conceptual fallacy: to view technology, especially social media, as too separate from the people who use it. What I want to propose is that the new technologies in question���especially the highly interrelated mobile web and social media���effectively merge the digital and physical into an augmented reality. And the consequences���our global atmosphere of dissent���are erupting around us. I will begin by defining what I mean by ���augmented reality��� and then will use the recent massive gatherings, especially the Occupy movements around the United States and increasingly the globe, to argue that what we are seeing is an augmented revolution. 2. Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality By ���augmented���, I am referring to a larger conceptual perspective that views our reality as the byproduct of the enmeshing of the on and offline. This is opposed to the view shared by both conceptual positions outlined above that views the digital and physical as separate spheres���what I have called ���digital dualism��� [7]. The term ���augmented reality��� intentionally makes reference to the software applications of the same name. We can contrast ���virtual reality��� hardware and software that