Waves of revolutionary actions beginning in late 2010 led to the downfall of dictatorial leaders who had been entrenched in the Arab world for decades. Everyday citizens used social media services to coordinate, communicate, expose, and respond to the oppressive forces that would crush pockets of resistance. The period known as the Arab Spring provides just one of many examples of how new media "have lowered the costs of production and circulation, decreasing the investment of skills and money required to meaningfully shape our culture, and thus have paved the way for more voices to be heard." If everyday citizens can utilize social media to promote change in the face of oppressive regimes then these services can certainly foster more participatory and democratic experiences for students and teachers. These opportunities should be particularly enticing in the social studies, a field concerned with democratic citizenship, but often characterized by top-down pedagogy. Numerous educators have enlisted a range of social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Plurk) to improve their craft, and Twitter has attracted its fair share of enthusiasts. In this article, the author describes two dynamic social studies lessons, concerning Enlightenment era philosophers and the Cuban Missile Crisis, that serve as illustrative examples of how social media, specifically Twitter, might offer more participatory and student-centered educational experiences.