R8: Social Media Activism

Social media has undoubtedly become an vital part of activism around the world and has been a key component in the development of many ongoing social movements. Malcolm Gladwell writes in his article for The New Yorker, that “the traditional relationship between political authority and popular will has been upended, making it easier for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns.” (Gladwell, 2010) This statement is true and does highlight how social media can be important in social activism, however, Gladwell does not believe social media is as important to activism as many find it to be. Gladwell believes social media revolves around “weak ties” which leads to the lack of structure and hierarchy that he finds necessary for any social movement. I agree that those are some fundamental issues found in today’s activism, but do I believe that truly disqualifies social media from being a valuable tool in helping social movements meet their goals?, absolutely not.   

The importance and value of social media as it relates to activism lies in it’s ability to be a catalyst, sparking conversation and raising awareness, which I find to be extremely invaluable. As Deray Mckesson states in his interview, “we aren’t born woke, something wakes us up, and for so many people, what woke them up was a tweet or a Facebook post, an Instagram post, a picture.” (Opam, 2016) Most people today find out about social issues on the internet. For example, The Black Lives Matter movement gained traction through social media platforms after people found out about the ongoing injustices, primarily police brutality, affecting people of color across America. This awareness led to a nationwide discussion on how to resolve race relations in our country, which I believe would not have happened without social media "waking people up". Social media activism is not the end all be all in social movements, but it is an important first step in a movement eventually reaching their goals. Once a person is aware of situations going on in their society through activism online, they have a choice to continue fighting for the cause in other ways such as, actively working in communities, contacting government officials in their state about their concerns and how to they can help solve them, or even potentially running for official positions in their communities.

Works Cited

Gladwell, Malcolm. “Small Change.” The New Yorker. October 4, 2010. Accessed May 4, 2017. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell

Opam, Kwame.”Building Tools For Digital Activism.” The Verge. November 29, 2016. Accessed May 4, 2017. https://www.theverge.com/a/verge-2021/deray-mckesson-interview-black-lives-matter-digital-activism