The World Institute For Social Change

Nowadays, social media is practically a staple in everyone’s lives. While some use it solely to stay in touch with friends or family, others wouldn’t even know the latest of current events if they didn’t have their phone notifying them that their friends are talking about it. The Internet and social media have bred a new generation of socially-aware people which has given them a platform to learn and share on. Because this generation’s growth is largely-based online and through technology, it has formed a new brand of social activism. While some feel social media has made it too easy to claim a movement or position, others believe that it is what we need to spread a message

Today, people seem blinded by their outsized enthusiasm for social media. According to them, a few clicks can change the whole world and accomplish wonders such as curing cancer. Good intentions become sufficient on their own, as if there were no need for medicine and scientific researches anymore. Well, this is pure nonsense. Facebook’s likes cannot save African children from starvation, the same way Twitter’s 140 characters will not put an end to acts of terrorism. This notion is not even remotely debatable. For instance, the project Kony2012 had a perfect starting point; inspiring video, moving story and most importantly worldwide spread. Unfortunately, the terrorist is still at liberty, and the lack of thorough investigations is to blame. Instead of focusing on the real problems of war and kidnapping of children, the so-called activist related to the obvious and spent all of his money and energy on his movie. Ultimately, due to the predominance of weak-ties, the project was not successful. More importantly, certain tools of social networks, especially “likes” and “retweets”, encourage people to feel good about themselves, when actually they should incite them to put their efforts and means in the cause they supposedly defend. As Gladwell wrote, “[current] activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that

Technology is the worlds most powerful advocacy tool. When humans use it to raise national awareness. Change occurs. Elephants would be in a better position, If everyone online fought for them. The recent human rights movements are proof of this theory. It's up to social media to step up to the

With the recent advent of social media we are now more aware to the plights of the less fortunate. Former Vice Provost of Duke University Cathy Davidson, author of the essay “Project Classroom Makeover”, discusses the rise of our interconnected society through the use of social media in her essay. In tandem with Davidson is Maggie Nelson, whose essay “Great to Watch” explores the violence that is so entrenched in our society. The advent of the internet created social media platforms for previously unheard of connection. Giving everyone an equal voice, this platform was prime for being used for activism. However it is not that simple, being an activist for human rights will expose a complex world of parallel and sometimes contradictory ideas. Well used is social media for activism, and for good purpose, it is the most powerful tool for exposing the oft overlooked humanitarian issues of our world.

The following quote from the essay is an excellent example of the distinction that he makes, “The evangelists of social media don’t understand this distinction; they seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that signing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same sense as sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960.” This quote also brings to light his opinion about the level of commitment and sacrifice activism demands now compared to a less technological age. He makes the point that social media and technology make contributing to a cause, such as the Save Darfur Coalition page on Facebook, much easier today because they can reach greater number of people and that people are more likely to contribute because it costs them little in terms of resources (time, money, travel ect). He also weighs the merits of the structure of activism through social media versus the structure of a more centralized

In his essay, “Changing the Face(book) of Social Activism”, Mark Pfeifle writes about the role social media has played socially and politically in our world. In his time, Mark Pfeife has served as a top national security advisor, communicator and deputy assistant for George W. Bush. Pfeife has come to the conclusion that social media has redefined social activism - in place, calling it “social slacktivism”. The word “slacktivism” is a conjuring of his views and biases. Pfeife believes this describes the populace as taking action over the internet without doing anything physically to change things. An example that Pfeife brings up is during the presidential election of 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was promoted all over online, sources like

Gladwell suggests that social media is not the proper platform for activists to use seeing that “networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty researching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically, and they are chronically prone to conflict and error.” He believes activism requires a hierarchy figure that is responsible for making decisions and plans in order for progress to be made and that this is impossible for social media considering the fact that everyone

Social media’s prevalence is undeniable. From raising awareness to calling people to action, outlets like Facebook and Twitter have also become powerful tools for political and social revolutions. In the African American community, however, the effectiveness of online activism ranges from little to none. Issues dealing with black people are, more often than not, popular on social networking sites for a short amount of time and afterwards they tragically fade into obscurity. Many supporters of online movements rarely venture into

Another component of my work with the CCE is serving as a Faculty Mentor and Advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative University activities. In this role I provide coaching, mentorship, and training for students developing social innovations in the focus areas of poverty alleviation, education, peace and human rights, climate change, and public health. This October, I will escort our student participants to the conference in Boston, MA at Northeastern University.

Although the budget constraint was the lowest, 10.12 million, compared to other years in the 5 year period, New Heritage is still able to make a hefty investments on projects for the year 2012. Intended to tap additional sources of revenue, the Dolls of the World Initiative is deemed to be a feasible investment as NPV is positive with acceptable value of IRR, PI and payback period.

As technology develops rapidly in the modern society, the broad social influence it brings is also widely discussed, especially about its effects on social change. In the past, social movements were raised without the help of technology, specifically without social media, whereas social media has recently played a non-ignorable role. The connection between social media and social activisms concerned, here come some different voices. Few people maintain that social media now has no practical influence on social change, while others hold the opposite view, thinking social media is already a crucial factor in it. Personally speaking, I agree with the second kind of view: it is true that social media is not able to create social movements by itself in today’s world, but it plays an important and essential part in making real social change.

The nature of human rights campaigns in modern day American contains within it a use of social media. The way that humans interact today is predominantly through use of social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and a plethora of other options. It cannot be denied that the findings of the Walaski study that social media is an immediate source of communication (1) is true, as qualitative research methods have shown. Incorporating By providing insights and advice on the best ways that human rights advocates can make effective use of the social media at their disposal, improvements can be made in the outcomes of human rights campaigns in modern day America. The Kalai study in 2014 found that most people believe that human rights is an important part of modern society (234), and the study found that through social media, more people became educated about what human rights involved. This is supplemented by a study led by Ford in 2014 which found that more people use social media for their news than any other source (44). From the survey methods used by both Kalai and Ford’s studies, we know that human rights ' activist group leaders ' need to incorporate this surge of social media into their outreach methods to spread their cause. Due to its popularity, social media has the innate ability to reach a large number of people very quickly and, as Dutt and Rasul discovered in a 2014 study, proper use of social media can result in

Greenpeace uses various social media in order to communicate with their audiences. Social media enables instant communication taking place in actual time, eliminating limitations such as time differences and tangible presence. This means that Greenpeace is able to interact directly and globally with their audiences regardless the time and place. Through social media, written and verbal communication with mass audience is made possible through social media posts such as blogs, online community, comments and videos. On Facebook, audiences are actively engaged in conversations with Greenpeace through comments on Greenpeace’s posts.

Undoubtedly, involving more people to supporting change and peace in society can contribute a difference in many lives. In a modern technology world we can utilize the social media forms to spread equity and human rights messages. Facebook, Myspace, and Youtube are a great tools to utilize as it can get a broad audience and many from the young generation that will be the future leaders. Freedom of expression has helped Dr. Dashti make changes in the government, voting rights, and woman’s equity. It should not be taken lightly and be respected to all individuals. Only if we could have listened more to Kareem's blogging story in 2006 might have we had a chance to prevent all those who got injured from the Egyptian protest. This an example that shows how freedom of expression by an individual can have a strong impact. If we take time to listen and understand everybody's problems and reasoning not wait for a majority or power group to decide. We can learn to cooperate and work together as a global community in order

Most of the users of the internet in these nations are young, urban and many of them are also unemployed. It is also been argued that social media has been the key to organizing widespread protests as well as to publicize the demands of the protests, here Facebook is known to be used more by the protestors in many Arab countries for the dissemination of news as compared to the locally well known news media outlets.