TIME Magazine selects "The Protestor" as the person of the year

This Year (2011), the TIME magazine is awarding "the person of the year" title to "The Protestor" i-e to everyday people who changed the Arab world’s political landscape.

It was just announced on NBC-TV's The Today Show and on Time's website.


TIME magazine says the  protesters representing Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy the Hood, the Indignados of Spain, protesters in Greece, revolutionaries in Tunisia and Egypt, activists from Syria fleeing persecution, a crusader fighting corruption in India, Tea Party activists from New York, a renowned poet-turned-protestor from Mexico, and a protestor from Wisconsin who carries a shovel, topped by a flag.

Photo Credit Time.com

TIME says Social Media didn't cause the movements, but Human did it.

The protests have marked the rise of a new generation. In Egypt 60% of the population is under the age of 25. Technology mattered, but this was not a technological revolution. Social networks did not cause these movements, but they kept them alive and connected. Technology allowed us to watch, and it spread the virus of protest, but this was not a wired revolution; it was a human one, of hearts and minds, the oldest technology of all.

Reason for choosing "The Protestor"

"For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the Protester is Time's 2011 Person of the Year," Time editor Richard Stengel says in a statement .

Last year (2010), Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg got the Person of the Year award.

TIME's Person of the Year, from 1927 to 2010

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