Reza Aslan and Jessica Jackley visited Georgia Southern University on Monday to give a lecture about social media and how to use it to better the world.

The lecture was called “The Promise and Perils of Social Media.”

During the lecture, Aslan and Jackley discussed types and functions of social media as well as their own personal experiences.

“Social media is a new kind of media that is at odds with traditional media,” Aslan said.

The first time social media became a viable source of information was during the uprising in Iran in 2009, Aslan said.

“[The uprising in Iran] caused a media freak-out,” Aslan said.

This, in turn, changed the way things are discussed among us today, Aslan said.

“The traditional media is at odds with the new media — monologue vs. dialogue, authoritarian vs. democratic, passive vs participatory,” Aslan said.

The theme of the night was primarily centered on a redefined community. With social media, we now have a broader understanding and definition of community, Aslan and Jackley said.

“People we now consider as part of our community could be thousands of miles away from us, but because we share the same values they are as much a part of our community as those in close proximity,” Aslan said.

Jackley then told the story of her businesses and organizations founded on philanthropic social media.

Kiva is a website that allows people all over the world to give loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished nations so they can start their businesses, Jackley said.

Profounder is another website founded by Jackley where friends of entrepreneurs have the chance to invest in their friends’ businesses.

“This enables the people who truly believe in your business to help you out so you can get started,” Jackley said.

An issue lies in how the government defines “friendship,” Jackley said.

“The government still does not recognize the new changes in social media that literally allow us to have thousands of people who we consider friends. These laws are incredibly outdated and need to be changed,” Jackley said.

In this way, Kiva represents the promises of social media and Profounder represents the perils, according to Jackley.

Aslan then returned to the subject of revolution in the Middle East to explain his work with social media and his company, Aslan Media.

Aslan began with the story of Mohamed Boazizi, the vegetable stand owner in Tunisia who lit himself on fire after being denied his basic human rights by the oppressive Iranian government.

This physical fire started a revolution on Facebook and Twitter where young people all over Iran were joining together to fight back against the government. This came to be known in America as “The Facebook Revolution,” Aslan said.

“The corporatization that Americans use to describe the revolution annoys Arabs, but lets be frank, none of this would have been possible without social media,” Aslan said.

The fire then jumped to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Moscow and the United States, Aslan said.

“This was not just an Arab phenomena, but a global phenomena,” Aslan said.

Aslan Media supports global revolution and allows people all over the world to share their stories, Aslan said.

“With social media there can be no dictatorship. No authoritarianism can survive any more.  Social media allows us to be so connected that no one person can rule it all,” Aslan said.

The husband and wife team suggested that students speak for themselves and speak for the truth in order to benefit the world through social media.

Jackley said, “Students always ask us ‘What can we do to help?’ And the thing is we can’t really answer that for you. So you have to speak for yourself. Knowing yourself, knowing your values and knowing what you want to have happen will put you in the right direction to change the world. But it’s not just speaking for yourself, it’s speaking for the truth and remembering that we have such an incredible potential to do amazing things.”