You think that social media is about hooking up online? For these kids [in the Tunisian Revolution], it was a military tool to defend unarmed people from murderers.

Tapscott contrasts a trivial, entertainment-oriented view of social media (“hooking up online”) with its use as a high-stakes instrument of civic resistance. In the context of the Tunisian Revolution, the quote frames platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and mobile video not as passive channels but as tools for coordination, documentation, and rapid dissemination of evidence—functions that can deter violence, mobilize international attention, and help protect vulnerable protesters. The phrasing “military tool” is deliberately provocative: it suggests that information, visibility, and networked organization can operate like defensive weaponry for people who lack conventional arms, shifting power by making repression harder to hide.