Social Media; Globally
Cultures dictating the digital conversation.
In the United States, Facebook rules social media, holding the most shares of visits. Facebook in the U.S. has just about every type of content you could want. Status updates from friends, news articles (both reliable and unbalanced), as well as how-to videos, memes and even updates from stars or political figures, you can find whatever you need on American Facebook. Content is relatively uncensored unless the post is obviously inappropriate.
The United States has seen a lot of social and political movements gain momentum through social media. There is a lot of debate over the pros and cons of social media, but the changes it has made in our country cannot be ignored. How has social media, particularly Facebook, been used to make a lasting impact on culture across the globe?
In Mexico, drug cartels have a ginormous influence on society. The term “narcoculture” has been coined to explain the impression the cartel lifestyle has left on Mexican business, religion and even fashion. This injecting of drug culture has even flooded into the media, creating narcomedia.
“The Narcomedia represents the logical progression of Mexico’s drug war” -The Verge
Basically, drug cartels and the Mexican government alike use Facebook to share pictures of what they would consider “victories”; pictures of mutilated corpses, either cartel members or government officials. It would be hard to believe there is much censorship on Mexican Facebook, considering even government officials are showing off the cartel members they kill.
Facebook in Mexico is a clear lens into the corruption, violence and drug influence the countries faces.
Just a few years ago, China saw a series of protests, particularly in Hong Kong. 18-year-old Joshua Wong has been at the center of these protests as well as several others. Naming his movement Scholarism, Wong has used social media as his main catalyst for change. Wong is very vocal about how important social media is to his movement, essentially attributing all of his success in organization to Facebook. Wong’s biggest success was the ease at which others around the world could support Scholarism’s movement.
Showing solidarity with the protest was as simple as sharing an image of a yellow umbrella on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to symbolize the movement that carried its name. -CNBC
The protest led by Wong and Scholarism garnered almost 1.3 million tweets in just 4-days during what came to be know as the Umbrella Revolution. Striking pictures circulated of the revolution, almost exclusively on social media.
It is clear how much impact social media has on peoples lives across the world. It can be used for great things, or terrible things but really seems to be a perfect mirror of how a country, society or government operates and what they place importance on.
