How many times a day do you check Twitter or Facebook?  If you’re like me, you waste too much of your time on social media websites.

As college students at Creighton, we are certainly familiar with the devastating effects of social media — namely, allowing for procrastination.  During finals week I even go so far as to have a friend change my Facebook password.

But what we normally use as procrastination tools are actually really important.  Certainly as a global community we can recognize the need for social media.  In Egypt and Libya, for an example, when conventional media was shut down, Twitter and Facebook were the primary means of organization.

The world watched as people reached the heart of Tripoli, the capital of Libya, on

Aug. 22.  The new, post-Gaddafi government seems promising, and it is reasonable to suggest that without social media, it would have been much more difficult to organize the people to protest the government.  When the government initially shut down media such as newspapers and radio stations, people used social media in order to inform the world what was happening.  This worked, of course, until the government shut down the Internet.

Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other social media outlets are not just being used such ways in the Middle East; they are also being used in Mexico.  The border of Mexico has experienced heightened levels of violence recently due to drug cartel activities.

Ciudad Juarez, a border city next to El Paso, Texas, is considered the most dangerous city in Mexico.  Not only is Juarez the most dangerous city, but also the violence is part of the reason why people try to enter into the U.S. illegally.

Juarez is so dangerous because the drug cartels and the government are linked together with a chain of corruption.  On average, eight people are shot there per day.  In protest of the violence near the U.S./Mexico border, people have been using social media as an outlet to criticize the government and drug cartel activities.

Have I mentioned that America’s consumption of drugs is what keeps these cartels in business?  Our demand for drugs such as marijuana and cocaine drive the wars in Mexico.  And we wonder why we have a problem with immigration.  But that’s another issue.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, two bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, one of the border cities in Mexico.  The bodies were gruesomely mutilated, and next to them was a sign next to them warning that social media users who continued to denounce the drug cartels would be consigned to the same fate.  These two people were only 20 years old.

The Zetas gang, the cartel that controls Nuevo Laredo, is most likely responsible for the deaths of the two young people.  Since this tragedy, people have continued to speak out, condemning the violence of the drug cartels.

I applaud the audacity of the people to continue to fight for what they believe in.  Even in the face of death, anonymous bloggers continue to write.

It makes me think:  Would I be willing to stand up to our government for something that I believe in, or would I take the path more easily traveled and simply complain?  I’d like to think that I would be willing and committed, but more often that not, I sit and do nothing.

The next time I’m bored and decide to blog or update my Facebook status, I will be thankful for the freedom to write whatever I want, and I will pray for those who don’t.  While college students may view these social media venues as a black hole of distraction, others see it as a means of protest.

I only hope that if one day I am faced with a similar situation of injustice, I will be among those brave enough to speak out.