The elusive quest for revolution. What about the next generation?

Research on the impact of the internet in the Middle East has been
dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the
hope for ‘revolutionary’ change and the admission that regime stability in the
region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with
the new and with the latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term
socio-cultural developments. This paper is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study
more seriously the social and cultural effects of internet and mobile phone use; to
find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual
and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and how these dynamics
are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role
for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities.