Alyssa

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Social and Political Activism Through Social Media

After reading the articles, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” by Gladwell and “Twitter Revolutions?” by Jenkins, it has come to my attention that twenty-first century societies all across the world use social media platforms to display their protests of social and political activism. Presently, it is perceived that Internet activism seems to be used more than physical activism.

Activism can be defined as “campaigning actions to bring about political or social change”. Social media, especially Twitter, can be considered a significant tool in spreading information fast and efficiently (in this case, the advantage would be the ability to convey information about protests to the outside world in a quick manner). Social media gives people the advantage to spread their perceptions through pictures, videos, blogs, memes, and a variety of other means on a global scale. I believe that social media platforms are so successful in exemplifying activism because it obtains the ability to speak to a wide range of differing people amongst difference in age, race, religion, gender, etc. Our world is so fixated on the use of technology that a post on the Internet can spread across the world in seconds, no matter who posted it.

As February passing, the month of Black History, Canada and a number of other countries celebrate the remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African-American race. Many stories and acts of activism for Black communities are remembered. A physical story mentioned in the article where the Black college students began a revolution through protesting because White people in a restaurant would not serve them coffee in North Carolina, is just one of the many stories of Black activism. These small events eventually became civil-rights wars and were used without any technology or the use of social media to portray the message of equality.

Today, the tools of social media have reinvented social activism. It gives the powerless the advantage to collaborate with others and to display their thoughts and opinions. As mentioned in class, the “Black Lives Matter” campaign is a national organization that is working to build the Black liberation movement. This network was created after the Trayvon Martin case (where a White cop had got away with the murder of an innocent Black boy due to suspicion of a weapon, based on his race). The “Black Lives Matter” campaign displays the cry for equality and the fear of oppression.

Through the use of social media, we see campaigns that are networked internationally, such as the “Black Lives Matter” movement, political figures for egalitarianism, and celebrities, such as Beyonce, demonstrating the importance of equality, not only for Black lives, but for all those without a voice. It is amazing how something so large and highly under-valued can be changed with the click of a button.

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The World of Internet Memes

Internet memes have transformed into the web’s most recent, entertaining trend. Internet users, like myself, find themselves attached to their phones or computers for hours on end searching comical Internet memes. The world of Internet memes has various, different memes that appeal to a wide range of different people. For example, my favourite kinds of Internet memes are “Troll Memes”.

Patrick Davison explains his views on Internet memes in his article, “The Language of Internet Memes”. He presents three different components of Internet memes: the manifestation, the behaviour, and the ideal. To exemplify these components, we can look at Troll Memes on a more specific level.

The Manifestation: The manifestation for Troll Memes is the visual, repetitive aspect to each meme. Therefore, the simple use of colours (mostly black and white), the constant, unchanged characters (Derp, Derpina, and Troll), and the choice of verbal conversation or writing. This is displayed when the writer uses “Le” before they speak of a noun or sometimes a verb, as well as “FUUUU” after something bad or annoying has happened to the character.

The Behaviour: The behaviour for Troll Memes is the idea that the characters and unique facial expressions can be copied and pasted or used again in a different context for additional humorous reasons. For example, Derp and Derpina always seems to look the same in all Troll Memes, as well as the parents always have the “Troll” face when others create copy-cat Troll Memes of their own.

The Ideal: The Ideal in the Troll Meme case is similar to all other memes, the concept is purely for entertainment; to create and understand real-life situations that are not particularly funny to the character that is frustrated or annoyed, but it is funny to others witnessing it. 

All components above can be seen in the example below.

Aside from the three distinctive components of Internet memes that Davison mentions, I found it interesting that he paired Internet memes up with emoticons. Emoticons are small images (mostly faces) that are representations of facial expressions. Davison states that emoticons are memes that serve a number of functions in the transmission of information, which I strongly agree with, and Troll Memes are just another example to support this point. Emoticons are used for all types of different facial expressions, in the way that memes use many different facial expressions on their characters in relation to what is being stated on the full image. However, emoticons are used much more often than Internet memes are. Therefore, I see the use and entertainment of Internet memes being a fad, whereas emoticons will always be used in personal conversation because they give the user more freedom to choose their expression (where something like Troll Memes, you must use the characters that have already been created when re-posting or re-creating and these expressions are very limited).

All in all, both Internet memes and emoticons are used to describe expressions, but I believe that Internet memes are used more for entertainment, than for daily usage in everyday conversations, like emoticons are.

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Can “Emoji” Really Be Considered a Language?

I find it quite fascinating that emojis have evolved globally among many different social bases in such a short time period. If I’m not mistaken, I remember I was first introduced to emojis from MSN, an instant messaging network where teens went crazy with the compulsive use of emojis. From MSN, I have observed the evolution of emojis from a wide range of various apps and websites. Pretty much anywhere one can have a virtual conversation with another, emojis can be found.

I find the history and symbolic meaning behind emojis very intriguing. In the article “Smile, You’re Speaking Emoji:...” by Adam Sternbergh, he mentions some interesting meanings behind some of the more popular emojis, as well as emojis that people most likely do not even know exist. For example, Canada’s favourite emoji, the smiling piece of poo derives from the Japanese word “luck”. Or in far context, the shrimp emoji symbolizes Mariah Carey. Some emojis are quite ridiculous in terms of the significance, but users must be aware and remember that the emoji keyboard originates from Japan and certain emojis may have cultural value.

Without a doubt, I am guilty in the sense that I do use emojis in my daily social conversations. However, I have not removed and substituted words and dialogue for only using emojis to carry on a full conversation. The use of emojis has come to an irrational extent where people are re-writing movies, proposing, exchanging song lyrics, and even ISIS is using them to communicate with the public.

While emojis can be fun and entertaining, I argue that these little animations are contributing to the decrease in physical conversations people avoid having in reality. Texting is already problematic in the life of an ordinary person. Some do not obtain the knowledge of how to truly connect with someone else or hold a steady conversation, as mentioned in Sherry Turkle’s article “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” A face-to-face conversation provides empathy and intimacy and each can asses one another’s posture and tone. Face-to-face conversations deliver who we really are, not the person who is behind a phone or computer texting and sending emojis based on the desire to “think before we send” or have a second chance to re-write how we feel. It is disappointing to see technology decreasing the amount of face-to-face interactions and increasing the use of social sites and apps simply because it is more convenient.

With that being said, I unquestionably hope that my boyfriend does not propose to me using emojis… or that any sentimental events in my life involve technology, unless it is to capture a picture.