Online Activism

In the works of Gladwell, Stephen, and Walton each author offered ideas of how they believed social media was impacting social activism and politics. Malcolm Gladwell’s article, “Small Change” incorporated his ideas and beliefs that social media was weakening social activism. Throughout the article he explains that the use of social media diluted the passion that activists back in the day had. The passion to stand up and fight for what they believed in, instead of hiding behind a screen. However, Gladwell did add that social media allowed the issues to be spread more easily, through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Bijan Stephen seems to stand in the middle of this debate with his article, “Get up, Stand Up: Social Media Helps Black Lives Matter Fight the Power”. The article explains how social media is a source of live, raw information. We are able to view the actions of people in real time, without the sugarcoating or cutting out of information that the news seems to do. Additionally, the article states how social media helped influenced the federal government to investigate police practices in Ferguson and Baltimore. Although, with these pros comes some complications that arise from social media. Social media has also been seen as another gateway for African Americans to be abused. Lastly, in her article “How Advocating from the Comfort of Our Own Homes Has Impacted American Politics”, Natalie Watson focuses more on how social media is impacting the politics in our world. She describes how she feels more people focus on the negative impacts that social media has on the politics of our country instead on focusing on all the positive impacts that it can have. Yes, she admits that social media might take away the opportunity to expose ourselves to new information or opinions which can lead to strong party polarization, however, the positive impacts might override this effect. Social media offers users the chance to create their own movements that focus on their view point or join other groups that follow their same beliefs and opinions.

I am in the middle of this argument. I believe that social media has both positive and negative impacts just as these authors have outlined in their work. I believe that social media allows us to have instant access to information to problems around our country. However, this is not necessarily a good thing. With people seeing these major headlines, they might form opinions without knowing the background information of the issue at hand. This allows people to start arguments that might not even relate to the topic. Based on my knowledge of social media, I believe that in some cases “online activism” might be able to promote social justice and equity, although in other cases it might just make the issue worse.