Social Media, Activism, Opinions, oh my!

Last week, we spent some time talking about social media, social movements/activism, and how the two work and don't work in conjunction. Is it a good tool? Is it not? Here's my take.

It terms of disseminating information, I think social media is awesome. It's quick, timely (for the most part), editable/updatable (again, for the most part) and its circulation has a wide birth. Personally, I find that I get my information quickest online, obviously paying close attention to who I'm getting my info from and when the info was published. Mediums such as print newspapers and television, while still good sources, aren't as easily accessible or editable due to time-slots, circulation schedules and the fact that you can't re-air or re-print if information is incorrect.

Now, it terms of organizing, I think social media has actually cultivated laziness in activists. Everyone likes executing a task when it is easy to do so. What's easier—retweeting your solidarity or physically leaving home to march in a protest? The answer is crystal clear. I think that the social movements of the past were so powerful because social media didn't exist. You couldn't be lazy and or passive in social movements...you truly had to BE there, entrenched in the cause.

TLDR: Social media makes people lazy and activists aren't immune. Good for info, bad for active participation.

After reading Douglas' The Rise of Enlightened Sexism, I can't help but wonder how social media would have impacted the "girl power" movement of the 1990s. Would the Spice Girls be using the hashtag '#GirlPower' to spark a conversation between feminists all over the world? If so, would they still show up to protests and rallies? How would feminist publications and zines have utilized social media? Just some food for thought 😉

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Op-Ed: Your OCD is Showing

If you can’t see something, does that mean it’s not real? We’ve all heard it before. Hell, we’ve all said it ourselves. “I’m so OCD about _______.” Cue collective laughter and affirming nods. Isn’t everyone a little OCD about something? That OCD is a legitimate, mentally-crippling disorder is unquestionable. And yet here I am, advocating for its validity and insisting that we begin to take it more seriously. Just picture this: a child creeps out of bed at ten o’clock on a school night. After descending the staircase quietly, their feet pad across ice-cold hardwood. Frozen in a unique mixture of paralyzing fear and overwhelming exhaustion, the child stares at the lock on the front door. Then, following ten long seconds of stillness, the child moves toward door, touching the lock in six quick, gentle movements, and sprints back up the stairs, careful not to look back. Three. That’s the number of times this child has peeled their tiny body from the comfort of their warm bed. This child is
Read more

A little somethin' somethin'

My final project centers around social media feminism and takes a look at whether feminists are more present online or in real life. To get a better sense of what is actually going on out there, I interviewed about ten feminists spanning the ages of 20 to 50, asking them a total of six questions to not onnly gage their thoughts on feminism, but to to get a sense of how they participate in feminism as a movement as well. I was really surprised at the feedback that I received, but what was most interesting was the parallels between the oldest feminists and the youngest ones. Between these two groups, there were some unexpected match ups between their definitions of feminism and whether or not the groups thought feminists were more prominent online or IRL.  Of course, there were some predictable answers, but I found it refreshing that there is less of a generational-influenced divide between older and younger feminists.
Read more

Prompt: Nobody to Somebody

Marc Lamont Hill's Nobody  is required reading for everyone, its contents rich and absolutely important. The entire book's purpose aptly instills a strong mixture of fear, disgust and utter disbelief–and for good reason. It goes without saying that every single black life lost has and always will mean something, and they all should still be here. Yes, it may seem strange that Hill is so optimistic in the end given the material he is writing about, but I can't help but take on an optimistic outlook too. Because the brutalization and systematic targeting of people of color has been so prevalent in America's history, it will take time. BUT just because the change is not immediate, it doesn't mean it can't start right now at this very second. It doesn't mean we can't enact change, even on a small scale. It's on us as citizens of this country to speak up and educate those who really just don't get it. I've reflected on this, before this readin
Read more