We are definitely at a time in America where voting is really, really starting to matter. People are campaigning for others to vote more than ever before. When I first registered to vote, I did so simply to vote for the President, thinking that that was the only vote that really mattered. But as I’ve gotten older, and more educated, I’m beginning to understand just how important the smaller elections can be. This coming up midterm election is hopefully going to be a large milestone in voter turnout, and hopefully this trend can continue to grow. Hopefully, people will begin to realize that they do indeed have a voice.
Social action and activism have become a huge aspect of today’s American society. I live in Los Angeles, and in January 2017, almost a million people showed up in downtown for the Woman’s March (NBC, 2017). Just recently after the horrid shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, over 2,000 people moved to the streets in protest of the President’s arrival (Selk & Swenson, 2018). Whether someone has difference in political affiliation or not, it is clear that social action is becoming realer than it has in decades. It is believed that there is power in organizing social action, and that the power of these organized people could be used to counter the power that comes from the most influential segment of society (Schneider et al., 2012).
Organizing social action is also becoming easier than ever before with the help of the internet and social media. Before the internet, organizing a rally or protest had to be done by passing out flyers and making unsolicited phone calls. It was simply harder to make people aware of what was happening around them. With new age social media, we can induce the awareness of thousands with a click of a button. We’re able to congregate, cultivate and educate together as one. This helps bring about the strategies of social change – pushing mass mobilization, social action, citizen participation, public advocacy and popular education into the forefront (Schneider et al., 2012). Social media brings these strategies straight into the eyes and ears of the people.
Now, many know that social media and mass mobilization can also provide the negative effect in gathering people to protest or march for their beliefs that may be at the disparity or harm of other people’s freedoms and equality. Social media can “empower” individuals to have a voice (Murthy, 2018) but it can also empower those who did not initially have a voice for good reason. But, I want to focus this blog post on the positive aspects that can result in social change and activism. In studies of enterprise social media use, tweet-like microblogging was thought to lead to “more team cohesion and lead to faster problem solving”. Twitter has been found to have linked geographically disparate groups during the Occupy movement (Murthy, 2018).
Basically, social media has linked people together that would have normally never met or interacted a day in their lives. It brings a cohesion and a feeling that someone isn’t alone, and that every person can have a say in how they want their world to be. We’re living in a time now where we can use our resources for very good, or very bad, but we cannot deny just how strong these resources have an influence in our sense of selves. It used to feel like no matter what, one person couldn’t make a difference, but as things are evolving, and people are banding together to create a better future, it’s beginning to feel like we can all truly make a difference, whether that be alone, or together.
References:
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
NBC Los Angeles Staff. (2017, January 23). 750K Flock to Downtown LA for Women’s March: Organizers. Retrieved from https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Thousands-Womens-March-Los-Angeles-411409495.html
Selk, A., & Swenson, K. (2018, October 31). Here’s the ‘small protest’ Trump says he didn’t see in Pittsburgh. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/31/heres-small-protest-trump-says-he-didnt-see-pittsburgh/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e905b3302c4d
Murthy, D. (2018). Introduction to Social Media, Activism, and Organizations. Social Media Society,4(1), 205630511775071. doi:10.1177/2056305117750716