Years after its area roots in protests against illegal aliens in 2007 in adjoining Alamance County by building tradesmen losing work to them, the Tea Party in this area could still learn some things from the recently-begun Occupy protesters. Specifically, the Tea Party could learn - a lot - about how to use technology to become far more effective.
As in those June 2007 protests against illegal aliens by those who became its nucleus locally here, the Tea Party locally remains long on enthusiasm (photo) - but makes rather little use of technology. In contrast, the Occupy protesters - everywhere - have made extensive use of technology from the very start.
Every local Occupy seemed to have not only a Web site - but also a Twitter hashtag and to make constant remarks on Twitter - to attract potential new members from its first days. The "flagship" Occupy in Manhattan also made extensive use of cellular phones for networking by its top organizers - a fact reported in the New York Post in an article highly uncomplimentary to that Occupy.
In contrast, local Tea Party organizations seem to make very little use of Twitter - at least in any organized way, though a look at Twitter on any day finds plenty of individual Tea Party members nationwide tweeting and a national Tea Party hashtag with plenty of daily activity.
In this one, it's the elders who can learn from the "kids."
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