Activism benefits the targeted cause
It’s the middle of June, and you pull up Instagram just to be bombarded with a tsunami of blue profile pictures. The crisis in Sudan is raging, and the people of the Internet are the only ones who can save it. If we all just change our profile pictures to blue, then the political unrest will cease. Fast forward a few weeks, and profile pictures are turning all sorts of different colors for different causes.Can blue dots really change the world? Not literally, but, despite what some cynics might claim, they are making a positive difference in the way news is circulated.
Back in June, when I first saw a blue profile picture, I was intrigued. I clicked on the little blue circle and was thrust into a world of economic hardship, civil war and political strife that was unknown to me minutes before. The regime in power in Sudan had shut down all cell access to isolate the conflict at hand.
Through this simple blue dot, I, along with many others throughout the world, became informed of an extreme crisis that without social media would never have reached my corner of the world. Just recently, social media helped inform me of another crisis: the burning of the Amazon Rainforest. Once again, without social media, I could have never learned of the destruction of one of the most beautiful places on Earth. So why is social media activism criticized so much in our society?
In many cases, it’s because people don’t want to hear bad news. We tend to turn to social media to smile at memes or hype up a friend’s post. In reality, social media is another way to spread news and ideas - good or bad.
For all social media platforms, users can to some extent control what they want to see on their feed by following and blocking certain accounts, so there is a way to limit how much bad news you see. However, the problem people have is that their friends they follow to hype up are becoming the bearers of bad news. The usual posts full of happiness and positivity are replaced by posts of negative information. This is not an issue, however, because the other purpose of social media is to increase the interconnectedness of the world.
Whether we like it or not, bad news is unavoidable in our society, and we have a duty to be informed. Even though the constant stream of bad news may seem to come up on your feed often, it is cleary working. If you think about it, the constant talk about activism being annoying is only helping spread the news, which further helps the cause at hand.
By Ethan Rutter
Activism is a detriment to the targeted cause
Social media allows for a sense of connected knowledge. Just about every time anyone gets on Instagram or Snapchat, they can see someone’s story about a recent tragedy or political topic they wish to bring up. It feels as if there is no escaping the problems the world faces.
There’s nothing wrong with someone on social media sharing their opinions on a very important issue in society, but the quality of the thought determines the quality of the message.
In recent weeks and months, social media stories and posts have revolved around mundane, copy-and-paste activism. They usually consist of a video describing the “absolute horror” and “inhumane treatment” of animals when they are poached or used for resources and financial gain.
The underlying issue with this seemingly harmless facade of selflessness and care towards nature is that no one is going to pay attention to these posts. After seeing plenty of these videos on various people’s stories and watching them as if its clockwork, people simply lose interest in the idea behind the video.
“Using social media to push one’s political agenda defeats the purpose of the idea, which is to connect with friends,” said John Klein, a junior at BGHS.
When anyone gets on social media, they usually use it as a form of escapism from their own life into the lives of others; however, seeing various political ideals or “movements” being pushed into one’s feed can easily become frustrating.
Despite the annoyance of these posts, they can be credited with spreading the information vital to solving the problem. In June, in order to inform people of the problems with the Sudanese government and their treatment of Sudanese citizens, people were changing their profile pictures on Instagram to a solid blue circle to symbolize defiance of the government. However, these “messages” were lacking, if not missing entirely, real substance. The posts should simply be seen as creating awareness, not as some monumental political act. Creating awareness of an issue and facilitating conversations about why it matters is the most impactful way to post about these issues. Contrarily, posting a political ideology without the intent of receiving a response or talking to others about it has no real rhyme or reason.
“I think that some social media reshaping or retweeting makes your opinion too common to others and prevents diversity,” said Jax Willgruber, junior at BGHS.
The idea of making a message popular and trying to spread a crucial piece of information over social media through reposting can work, but it devalues the actual cause because it lacks personal “touch.” An idea cannot be forced at the expense of its unique emotional weight and depth.
By Drew Lawless