Host： You write， “The amount of energy that had been 1)exerted by the Twitterati to save the now-infamous Balloon Boy would probably be enough to prevent at least a few dozen African 2)genocides.” How do you figure that？
Evgeny Morozov (Researcher at Harvard University)： Well， I mean， if you look at the most popular topics discussed on Twitter at the end of last week， they actually， the Balloon Boy dominated pretty much everything. You know， it dominated politics， it dominated health care， it dominated everything else. More than that， you actually had a particular campaign before it turned out that the boy was actually hiding and was not [in] the balloon. There was actually a campaign on Twitter to try to save him， to try to influence events.
And the ease with which now it is possible to form these issue groups. It of course could be extremely good and productive， as we’ve seen with events in Iran， for example， you know， earlier this year. But sometimes I think these people go a little bit too far and they start campaigning on issues before actually thinking them through and3)verifying that the problem actually exists.
And I think that it just creates this almost on-demand activism， where， you know， whenever you feel bad about the world， you can actually get involved for 30 seconds， join the Facebook group or sign an online petition.
Host： But what’s so terrible？ What’s so terrible about getting involved for...30 seconds， if perhaps 30 seconds is enough to achieve an outcome？
Evgeny： Yes. Well， the question is， does it actually achieve an outcome？ And my understanding has been that， in many cases， it’s all just about making you feel good， this notion of 4)slackerism where you are still a slacker without actually getting involved， you know， depth. But you also kind of， you know， visibly， you are doing something. All your friends see that you’re involved， but your involvement is for those purposes only. It’s only to impress your friends， to impress your Facebook community， to impress your Twitter followers， while the actual impact is very minimal.