Blog Post #2

In the three articles we read today, all of the authors shared their respective opinions on whether or not social media can influence politics and social activism. To start, Walton and Stephen both brought up the argument that platforms, especially Twitter, are great for putting information out to the public in real time intervals. Stephen focuses more on the history of the famed “Black Lives Matter” movement, but Walton goes on to discuss more in detail how she believes social media deserves credit for keeping less politically-involved citizens informed on campaign platforms during election seasons. She also points out that a person’s individual scroll feed is influenced by the people they choose to surround themselves with online and the subsequent effects from potentially reading a biased short snapshot about a candidate. Sharing relevant views with Gladwell, both mention the low risks of social media activism (Gladwell more than Walton). Gladwell goes as far as to provide examples of how high-risk activism is increased when people are surrounded by peers with similar strong feelings, but those connections are absent in online activism, leading to a generation of activists who are perfectly content banging angrily away at keyboards versus going out into the actual world of politics to make a difference. Another strong difference that Gladwell discusses is the lack of a hierarchy on the social media platforms. He describes examples of famed live protests that were carefully organized to accurately convey the message, yet online activists have no censorship to prevent them from writing a completely ignorant and inaccurate Facebook comment. Personally, I agree with Walton the most. Social media isn’t necessarily the most effective way to instigate major change outside of the internet (except in certain cases such as the Women’s March on Washington). But it is a good way to reach out to the grassroots voters for smaller topics and to bring together a community, such in the case of the bone marrow donation movement and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.