Similar to our parents’ generation being introduced to cell phones, today’s generation has become accustomed to relying on social media sites. Twenty or 30 years ago, protesting meant standing outside government buildings or businesses with picket signs, chanting phrases for hours on end. The word about these in-person protests got out by way of television news stations or the radio; nobody logged into Facebook and saw friends posting statuses about protesters a few blocks away from their house.

Although this form of demonstration hasn’t diminished completely, as demonstrated by the Occupy movement, it has become clear this isn’t the only way to get leaders to listen to protesters.

Personally, I didn’t find out about Reddit and Wikipedia’s blackout in protest of SOPA and PIPA last week by attempting to use their websites. Instead, I noticed these two trends were the topics of many tweets by my friends, co-workers and various news organizations I follow.

Out of curiosity, I went to Google and Wikipedia to figure out what all the outcry was about. After that, I followed links to read up on SOPA and PIPA and looked at different ways people were contacting senators and congressmen and women in protest of the acts.

I probably would have come across the blackouts anyway, but out of the 162 million people who viewed Wikipedia, according to msnbc.com, I’m sure a solid number of those people found out about the blackouts through social media sites.

#Wikipediablackout made up about 1 percent of all tweets — roughly 1.4 million tweets — and SOPA constituted a quarter-million tweets per hour during the blackout. Those two statistics support my assertion that social media is reforming protests and changing the way word gets out to citizens.

Protests aren’t only made to get government officials or leaders to listen to you, they’re also about getting people on your side to join your cause. After all, Rosa Parks would be just a name if the citizens of Montgomery didn’t boycott their bus system.

What if Rosa Parks was alive today, staging a boycott against a city’s entire bus system? She likely would have created a Facebook group and invited members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, to inform them of her plans. Maybe she would have created a #MontgomeryBoycott hashtag on Twitter and made the cause go nationwide immediately.

Protesting has changed drastically since then, and so has the way people are informed of joining demonstrations.

In-person protests aren’t dead, and like I said earlier, it would be crazy to think so given the worldwide Occupy movement.

But organizers of this movement have events popping up all over Facebook. Type “Occupy” into the Facebook search bar, and hundreds of pages and events will show up, from “Occupy Boston” to “Occupy Los Angeles” to “Occupy Germany.” Even though television news has played a vital role in making this movement known, I believe social media has made just as large of an impact.

Overall, social media — especially Facebook and Twitter — has revolutionized many aspects of our lives. Although some might be more obvious than others, like the way we get our news versus how we protest, the effect has impacted our generation and changed the way we get our voices heard.

Alyssa Girardi is the State News opinion writer. Reach her at girardi5@msu.edu.