The Power of the Tweeters

Hello there wonderful reader. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week, and I wish you every last bit of luck for the upcoming weeks if you, like I, are quickly approaching college finals.

I also hope that you have been keeping up with the news lately. Specifically the social unrest in our country over the tragic deaths of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice that have brought attention to the growing tension between the police force and the black communities. If you are active on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you've most likely kept up with these events mostly through these media sites, exposed to articles and opinions about police brutality and racism shared by friends/acquaintances/that one girl you talked to once in high school.

Regardless of how you feel about the protests in Ferguson, the police, or even if you admit institutionalized racism still exists, what matters is that when you see these articles you're witnessing activism. More specifically online activism.

But what is activism? The formal definition is "an intentional action to bring about social or political change." This involves advocacy that brings awareness to an issue and often speaking on behalf of groups that are pushing for change in government or other societal institutions. A lot of times when we hear someone described as an activist, we have a negative connotation. We think of them as radicals, speaking and acting irrationally to evoke anger in people and blowing issues out of proportion.

At least that's the case during a social movement...not always afterwards. Because when you think about it no one says Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights/human rights activist, isn't thought of today as being "too radical". The protests, sit-ins, and boycotts organized in the 1960s to advocate for civil rights were just as much forms of activism as the protests in Ferguson are. But the difference now is that we have different outlets and tools to be activists. Online activists.

Social media, like Twitter, is accessible to A LOT of people and allows for an individual, a group, or organization to communicate with a mass audience, spreading their messages far and wide to people around the globe. Without social media, organizations could not connect with similar-minded people for support outside of their physical surroundings, spread a reactionary alternative reading of dominant culture and ideology and current events, or even raise awareness, funds, and organize events.

But does tweeting out your opinion on Ferguson really make you as much of an activist as someone who marched on Washington with Dr. King in 1963? Does sharing articles about racist cops make you as much of an advocate for change as black students who sat at the lunch counters in Greensboro? According to Malcolm Gladwell, an author and journalist for the New Yorker, in his article "Small Change" the answer is no. He argues this because social media is so much less risky, to put it so simply. Tweeting out your opinion doesn't really put your life in danger like marching through the streets among people who literally hate you're doing would. The most risk you face when sharing a controversial opinion is an unfollow or fight in the comment section of your Facebook status.

Although this is a fair point, it is foolish to ignore the amount of power social media wields in modern social movements. Even if it may not be as risky and physically demanding, it is by no means worthless. When examining the events in Ferguson, it is clear that Twitter actually jumped on the story of Mike Brown before major news networks did, according to the Pew Research Center.


  (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/20/cable-twitter-picked-up-ferguson-story-at-a-similar-clip/)

Tweeters were active in not only discussing what had happened in Ferguson, but why it was happening and the implications of it...what does this show about racism in the U.S.? Why are people defending the white cop? Why are people labeling Mike Brown as a criminal who got what he deserved rather than an 18 year old victim of homicide? The conversation on social media outlets has been non-stop. Hashtags such as #Ferguson an #IfTheyShotMeDown assisted in spreading awareness about the prominence of racism in America at a time where we have believed ourselves to be a color-blind society. The speed of Twitter and its ease of use is key in putting something out there for people to read, acknowledge, and spread themselves to their followers.

Therefore, despite allegations that social media is only good for "slacktivism" (lazy wannabe activism), I believe its been key in a lot of social movements. Twitter especially is a platform for people to bring awareness to events in society we need to be talking about and spreading ideas that need to be nurtured and supported. Social media allows movements to grow in size. It plants the seed of thought. That thought sparks action. And the only way we can ever achieve change is though action.