The Revolution Will Be Televised

No one had expected a worldwide protest would have erupted after a video went viral. In the video, several uniformed security guards tried to shoo away three boys loitering in front of the Neiman Marcus on Rodeo Drive on Halloween night. They began to argue, and the guards pulled out their guns and shot them full of bullets, killing two and severely wounding one.

Protests exploded on Twitter. People all over the country joined an unprecedented online war over class warfare. The campaign snowballed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Vine. New online applications sprung up in response to the inadequacy of the existing social media, such as "Town Square" and "Million's March." Online and print news outlets were spent half their staff to report on the daily movements, which soon spread to involve all the major grievances that concerned more than a few people. The young complained about high unemployment rate and exorbitant college tuition. The old complained about near-zero interest rate and diminishing fixed income. The poor complained about massive and growing income disparity. The middle class complained about stagnating wages and rising cost of living. The rich ... It's hard to identify .
who was truly rich with online remarks, but there were no small number of people defending the rich's positions.

The anger and complaints burned across the Web, leaving a trail of scorched cyber earth. At its height, the movement even spilled into other media, as complaints and coverage of complaints dominated the airwaves on TV and radio. By then the grievances had expanded by economic inequality to everything ranging from traffic congestion to car thefts.

The streets were quieter than ever, as more people stayed home. Half were watching the raging debates and protests with interest, feeling a release of all their own frustrations and disappointments. Half were absorbed into the battles and spent hours and hours every day tweeting, posting, and trolling the hottest battlegrounds on the Internet.