ABSTRACT
An examination of the demographics of North Africa, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula quickly reveals the emergence of a significant youth bulge that is both angry and unemployed. This youth cohort has access to new international media and technology—especially cell phone texting capabilities and the social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter—that have allowed it to obtain critical support from Arab-language international television outlets such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. In turn, this attention has emboldened youth to use the instantaneous transmission of messages and images to mobilize locally around such issues as improved economic standards of life, freedom of expression and the press, access to high-quality education, and employment opportunities. This participatory, web-inspired social and political movement has forced youth to realize that a wide gap exists between their standards of living and those enjoyed by their peers in the rest of the world. And for these youth, that difference has become intolerable.
