Scroll through your timeline on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook and you’ll probably see a myriad of things including food, celebrities, cats and weddings. These platforms are known for likes, shares, regrams etc., but they’re also functioning as a real-time news source for people all around the world. Never before in history have we been able to access news as fast as we are today.
The influence of these platforms shouldn’t be ignored. In a book about social media, Paolo Gerbaudo wrote, “Activists’ use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a “cyberspace” detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups.”
Without social media, would you have known about the fatal police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in 2014? What about Tamir Rice, the 12 year-old child shot and killed by police in Cleveland, OH? Would you have known where to meet for your city’s first Women’s March in January? Or that the city of Flint, Michigan hasn’t had clean drinking water for over 3 years?
Social media activism is much more than “social justice warriors” banding together online. Real protests, real people, and real action is being introduced and organized through the free apps on our phones.
Anyone, anywhere can start a thread or chat group online. Diverse, limitless amounts of people can now get together and talk about anything from their favorite music artists to calling their government officials.
It’s time for the world to start viewing social media as an outlet for more than the daily happenings of the average person. Nearly every publication or company has their own online presence to keep up with the times. Rather than viewing this as the fading of traditional news culture, it should be seen as a new wave for the general public to get immediate information.
The internet is great for getting timely knowledge, but it should be noted there’s a threat of creating sensationalized exaggerations rather than carefully sourced statements. It’s much harder to clarify background research after the story has already gone live.
Today reports don’t necessarily have to go through the filter of journalists, editors and broadcasting companies. Nearly everything posted is fair game for anyone to see. Doctored photos, and opinion-based conspiracies have posed a lot of problems, not just for the buzz around “fake news” but for law enforcement officials trying to get information from online posts as well.
People don’t shy away from asking hard-hitting questions that perhaps those of the past thought of as taboo. And, for the most part, it’s easier to find the truth, no matter how dirty. (The nauseating reports of a particularly odious, orange president come to mind.)
This is an important aspect to the idea that the public not only should receive the truth, but absolutely deserve to know about the world around them. When it comes to topics like police brutality, sexual harassment, politics and the environment, holding onto the idea that “ignorance is bliss” manifests immaturity.
Logging on to social media can—at it’s core—give raw, real-time information about the world we’re living in. This is priceless. Utilizing and organizing the audience one can have is important. In a world of hypocrisy, access to real people and events of other places is a powerful thing.
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