Media Activism In Social Media

As much as social media has managed to ruin our society, it plays a positive role for the public as well. Social media allowed people to use their networks as a form of reaching out to old friends and family across the world. With America being known as the melting pot of the world, our society has several people with family on the other side of the Earth. With social media in effect, this permits people to stay in touch with long lost loved ones and keep ties tight. Not only has it sanctioned friends and family to keep in touches but has granted people to relocate birth parents and unknown family members as well. Yes, social media has failed our society greatly but there is always a rainbow somewhere after a rainy day. Social media can play a positive role by bringing people back together.

In the article “The Case for Social Media and Hashtag Activism” Sabina Khan-Ibarra makes the statement “As an activist, I saw social media as an opportunity to spread the word about various causes at a faster rate, and to a bigger number of people, than through traditional methods.” This is the main reason I believe that social media is extremely useful for activism, in mere seconds, your message can be reached by millions upon millions of people.

John Green, and his brother Hank use their internet fame for activism. John and his brother Hank have created an organization that has been around since 2007, and is still active today. The idea of this organization, known as Project For Awesome, was to be able to give to multiple organizations. With their large following, the two brothers had the idea of letting their followers choose which organizations to donate to.

Social media is just one of the tools available to social activists. There is no doubt that social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for spreading an issue, but regardless of what tool was used, the real activists behind the tool is what mattered the most for a successful social activism. Real activists are the people who are willing to sacrifice time and risk their lives for the social change they’ve longed wanted. They are people who are directly affected by the issue to the point where they had enough and are determined in making

The two articles I read for ThinkCERCA were about activism using social media. They highlighted one particular example, Wael Gonhim’s Facebook page, Kullena Khaled Said. Using social media, he was able to hear about a current event, and make a difference. The question was “Based on the evidence provided in these two articles and the visual sources, how did social media affect the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt?”

The Ice Bucket Challenge raised awareness and donations to the ALS foundation. The Occupy Wall Street movement allowed Americans to express their frustrations with banking practices and financial regulations that affect the 99%. This movement allowed for future banking plans to change, such as the idea to charge debit-card fees last year and student loan relief plans creating re-payments easier for students and forgiveness programs. Having knowledge is very powerful and social media allows people to become aware and research what is going on in the world around them. Valenzuela explains that social media can either be used to search intentionally for certain information or by accidently coming across the information by being friends with someone who is interested in political actions, this allows for learning to take place and increases the probability for political action to occur (923). Even if the results are not the desired ones, the movements and support from others creates a sense of togetherness, humanity and support. With more awareness people will continue to get together, join a cause and fight for a common

Social media is often discredited as being a superficial waste of time, evidence of the millennial generation's narcissistic tendencies and, in more extreme cases, a detriment to modern society. These statements are, to a certain extent, valid. However, this mindset underestimates social media’s potential, which extends beyond reconnecting with vaguely remembered elementary school friends, or wishing loquacious old aunts in Wyoming “Happy Birthday”. It is a platform in which an idea can be potentially spread to thousands of people in mere milliseconds. Because of this, it has been utilized by activists, both on an individual and organizational level . By raising awareness of

This is mainly due to the numerous advancements in technology that led to the expansion of the internet and social media, reaching all members and classes of society. In fact, as of 2016, nearly 78% of all Americans were social media users, representing a 5% growth from 2015’s 73%. This accentuates the extensive impact social media has on the American society though unfortunately, as the influence of social media increases, so does the proliferation of terrorism. The Internet, and all its cyber platforms, has prominently served as a recruitment tool used by most extremists and terrorist groups along with a means of exchange of radical ideals and

Infamous terrorist group ISIS and their simplistic, yet effective methods of targeting the populous of numerous countries via social media have become a negative impact worldwide over the past few years. Terrorist attacks in the United States and other countries are becoming more prevalent, including the spread of toxic falsities. Popular sites like: Facebook, Twitter and World Star Hip-hop come to mind as a medium to the masses. This uncensored content sparks disgust with the populous with their governments and the future of those countries. With a surge of technology usage in our daily lives, this leaves the population, primarily young adults, susceptible

Stepping into the year 2017, technology has been made the world’s number one priority. And because of technology, social media has drawn people from all over the world. Over billions upon billions of people are connected with some sort of social media. Those numbers are still in counting within the year. As technology advances, reality becomes more virtual, but in the same second its become less humane and reasonable.

People are responsible for the changes that happen in society, what matters is how they do it. There are several ways to make a social change and it depends on whether a person has strong or weak ties to the situation. A weak tie is a friend of a friend, or a casual acquaintance — whereas strong ties are those people you know and trust. For example, the gay rights movement, many people used online activism to help legalize gay marriage because they believed in the cause but may not have necessarily known anyone on a personal level. Social media plays an extremely important role when it comes to spreading awareness about a cause due to its ability to quickly and efficiently spread information. The problem is that “the internet is now about interactivity

“Students Addicted to Social Media” and “If We’re All So Darn Sick of You, Facebook, Why Can’t We Quit You?,” written by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda and Simon Dumenco, are two writings outlining different issues that plague users of social media. The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda summarizes their findings following a study they conducted that isolated subjects from social media for 24 hours. They found subjects experiencing feelings of withdrawal, a phenomenon that social media companies prey upon as explained by Simon Dumenco. Dumenco postures that companies such as Facebook will send false notifications to entice users into logging back in. These two ideas combine to paint a picture of an unconditionally constant presence of social media in everyday life, a practice that may be facilitated by explosive social media growth on a mobile platform. Together, these two publications point to problems that may have drastic effects on social media and those who use it.

Finally, the author suggested that consumers of social media may use it as an instrumental platform where they can advance their own interests. By advancing their interests, they are more likely to engage in political activity including political protest. The content on social media outlets may be used for mobilization making it possible for individuals to use it to serve their own interest by engaging in further political action including political protest or social movements.

“Slacktivism” a term used to define actions performed through the internet regarding little to no actual involvement. With this in mind many believe that social networks encourage people to not be so motivated to go out and do something for a change. Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article called “Small Change: Why The Revolution Won’t Be Tweeted?” discussing the influence that social media has on activism. He begins with expressing the waves of activism in the 1960’s, which is completely different to present time. He expresses modern time movements as the lamest way of activism. However, many others can argue that social media redefines activism. How does social media affect social activism? The ability of social networks by bringing people together should not be underestimated as it changes public awareness, up brings immediate urgency, and creates social connections.

With the influx of social media use, the way activism is conducted also has to adapt to the changing times. It is so easy for students, leaders, and other individuals to tweet or post about their political view or support for a movement. President Trump has used twitter as one of his biggest social media platforms. The biggest question now is if social media activism works?