Authoritarian leaders loathe social media. In 2013, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: "To me, social media are the worst menace to society." Social media provide an alternative channel for information and communication, far from old dictatorial tricks like orchestrated rallies televised by a state broadcaster. 

But these alternative channels of communication depend on the people who power them. Social media are, in that sense, not media, but a tool for speech. Twitter is akin to a loudspeaker and Facebook is like a noticeboard. Only if a critical mass of people calls for freedom and knowledge will social media live up to its revolution-starting reputation. We have learnt that the medium is not the message: a message is needed too. More messages than ever before now exist because of social media. Seventy-four per cent of internet users use social networking sites, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Social media have unleashed a torrent of human thought and emotion. But does this cacophony of messages amount to anything that Pandora hasn't already released from her box? Social media are anarchic and protean. They have brought forth what Hobbes might have called a state of nature 2.0. 

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," wrote Yeats in 1919. A century later his words ring true as the internet has undermined hierarchical sources of knowledge. The nature of knowledge, education and politics is changing; everyone can now see and contribute different points of view online, argues David Weinberger, a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. 

But the web's abundance of information is not a new problem. Ecclesiastes 12:12 reads: "Of making many books there is no end; and much study is weariness of the flesh." The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote: "What is the point of having countless books and libraries whose titles the owner could scarcely read through in his whole lifetime?" Today's overflow of information means reliable journalists are needed as gatekeepers and filters to determine what is important.

Social media have a ritualised hold over us. Smartphones accompany us to the bathroom, to bed and on public transport. A corresponding etiquette has not fully developed yet. Just how acceptable is it to whip out your phone in the company of other people? Rules of communication develop over time, and so does the rule of law. 

The justice system is catching up with technology. While banning social media is about as useful as banning the postal system, we draw the line at criminal activities such as death threats or child pornography for which people can be prosecuted just as they can be in "real life". But legal repercussions are not confined to death threats. Defamation online is as punishable as it is offline.

Today, 80 per cent of people in the UK worry about their personal data online. Edward Snowden's revelations, WikiLeaks and the rise of big data have spurred inquiries, outrage and suspicion. 

In March, the European Court of Justice ruled that Google must uphold the "right to be forgotten" and honour individual requests to remove private data from its search results.