Social Media for Social Change

UNC Chapel Hill November 3, 2008. This is a special picture as my mother and grandmother are located in the bottom right of it in the second row.

As a sophomore in high school, I was able to witness the last campaign rally of then Senator Barack Obama on the eve of the 2008 election. This trip was spur of the moment after seeing a Tweet about the rally two days prior. This rally was held in North Carolina and was a four-hour drive for those of us in East Tennessee. His message was able to reach three hundred miles away from his target group in NC. This was nearly ten years ago, while Twitter was only two years old. Imagine the potential reach now with millions of more users on the platform. I look back on this event and realize I was lucky to have been an early member of Twitter, or I may have missed out on a very special memory that I share with my family.

Obama’s campaign focused heavily on the use of social media as a way to provide the message of hope and change to millions of Americans was the first of its kind (Miladi, 2016). In hindsight of the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s campaign usage social media was just a product of this type of advancement of conveying messages through social media platforms, in my opinion. These types of campaigns and messages can change the culture of our country. We, however, are not the only country that can be affected by social change through the use of social media.

In the African country of Tunisia, a political uprising of social change established on social media platforms such as Twitter, and Facebook helped rid the country of a dictator that had ruled for twenty-three years (Miladi, 2016). This social change accumulated into protest movements that were backed by the sharing of videos, awareness campaigns, and discussions among citizens on social media. I could not help but to compare the use of social media in starting social movements in the USA. This has increased over the last two years and can be seen with the students in Parkland mobilizing very quickly for gun control, or and the Women’s March in 2017.

Social media has connected billions of people worldwide, and is an excellent source to spread social change, hopefully positive social change. Through the recent new cycles, we have also seen that it can and will be manipulated. We must diligently seek the truth and protect ourselves while engaging on social media. We, as Penn State students, have the benefit of knowing how to seek reliable sources. We must use these skills and seek reliable sources when interacting on social media, and bring attention to those sources that do not check out on posts, pictures, etc.

Reference:
Miladi, N. (2016). Social media and social change: Social media and social change. Digest of Middle East Studies, 25(1), 36-51. doi:10.1111/dome.12082

2 comments

  1. Social media has become an integral part of modern society. There are sites for almost every interest and hobby. There are sites for sharing photos, videos, status updates, and places to meet new people. There seem to be social solutions for almost every need. Social networks are a place where we often express our indignation at anything from poor-quality services to political issues. This allows us to let off steam and turn our news feed into an endless stream of negativity.
    In 2015, researchers at the Pew Research Center in Washington tried to find out whether social networks free us from negative emotions or, conversely, cause more stress. A survey in which 1800 people took part showed that women are much more susceptible to stress from social networks than men. They called Twitter the biggest source of negativity, as it constantly reminds of unpleasant situations in other people’s lives (2015). Twitter, however, also acted as an effective way to reduce the effects of stress: the more women used it, the less stressed they felt. Interestingly, men, this effect did not experience. According to researchers, they do not take social networks as close to the heart as women (2015). In general, the researchers concluded that the use of social networks is associated with a relatively low level of stress.
    It is clear that it is too early to draw final conclusions on many issues. However, we can say that social networks have a very different effect on people, depending on many conditions, and above all, on their personality traits. As with food, gambling, and many other temptations of our time, excessive use of social networks may be undesirable for some people. But, on the other hand, it would be a mistake to say that they are an undeniable evil, because networks provide many advantages.

    References:
    Hampton, K., Rainie, L., Lu, W., Shin, I., & Purcell, K. (2015, January 15). Social Media and the Cost of Caring. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/01/15/social-media-and-stress/

  2. Alicia Frances Cuddihee

    I think this post does a good job of pointing out our influence on one another. We credit much of the 2016 election to the Russian propaganda but that was really just the flint or the matches to spark the fuel that already existed in many unforgotten parts of the nation. It was, in a way, psychological warfare and manipulation to influence a massive part of the population to vote in a particular way. I feel that this was more to do with the influence we have on each other than the influence of each article. The impact was emphasized by our networks.

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