[inthedigitalspace-blog]

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

China: social media superstars vs. surveillance

Looking at social media in China makes me feel like they have this parallel world. They do not use the social media platforms the rest of the world uses but they have their own versions for every single one. However, the Chinese social media platforms are really big even though they are mostly used in China.

The platform WeChat can be seen as a substitute for WhatsApp. When you have a closer look at WeChat it almost seems as it is so much better than the networks we use. WeChat is not only a standard messaging app but also offers an all-in-one service. WeChat has an in-house mobile payment service called WeChat Pay which allows you to order taxis, book restaurants, shop online or transfer money. This made the app not only popular in China but also in 15 more countries where it has been launched. WeChat reached 1 billion monthly users at the beginning of this year. About 2.5 million Australians are using the app at the moment and the company wants to continue to expand (Kilbride 2018). Some Chinese apps are even more advanced then the western versions. Chinese users could emebd multimedia content in the network Sina Weibo a year and a half before Twitter introduced this feature (Chiu, Lin & Silverman 2012, p. 3).

Even though the western networks are blocked in China the Chinese equivalents are expanding. In fact, China is the world´s most active social-media population (Chiu, Lin & Silverman 2012, p. 1; Crampton 2011). The influence on purchasing decisions through social media is a lot higher in China than anywhere else in the world. Chinese rather buy a product if they see it on social media or a friend recommends it on social media. Chinese consumers trust word-of-mouth from family, friends and opinion leaders more since they do not trust in formal institutions or new sources (Chiu, Lin & Silverman 2012, p. 1). For those reasons it is especially important for brands to engage in advertising in social media and understand its structure in China.

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce version of e-bay, makes use of the growing popularity of social media. Alibaba has introduced the Taobao Marketplace which is a social e-commerce attracting millions of consumers. By blending in the concept of social media and e-commerce, Alibaba wants to keep the consumers longer on the platform. And it works! Users open the Taobao app six to seven times a day and spend there 30 minutes in total. Nobody would open the Amazon app seven times a day. Alibaba uses influencers in order to attract customers. Those influencers can do livestreams with links to the products, blogging and shopping trips. This helps Alibaba grow its revenue and at the same time making it lucrative for influencers who can earn tens of millions of dollars every year from their Tabobao shops (Wang 2017).

Surveillance 

The Chinese government has banned all the common social networks that are used in the western world, including Facebook, Twitter, Whats App and YouTube. Using their own social media sites gives the government the control over the content that is spread since they are scanning the information shared. However, it is questionable whether we are better off with the platforms we use (BBC 2017). WhatsApp and Instagram is also owned by Facebook and we can be sure that Facebook uses our data, especially looking at the happenings in the last few weeks. Furthermore, can we be sure that the government is not reading our messages? I do not think so. Cases like Edward Snowden revealed that the US government surveils their citizens. Of course, we can express our opinions freely on social media and won´t be prosecuted but we should consider that we share our messages and information with big companies as Google and Facebook and that maybe even the government monitors them.

 References:

 BBC 2017, 'Social media and censorship in China: how is it different to the West? ', 26 September, viewed 20 May 2018, http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41398423/social-media-and-censorship-in-china-how-is-it-different-to-the-west.

Chiu, C, Lin, D and Silverman, A 2012, 'China's social-media boom', McKinsey and Company.

Crampton, T 2011, 'Social media in China: The same, but different', China Business Review, vol. 38, no. 1, pp 28-31.

Kilbride, J 2018, 'WeChat: Chinese social media app reaches 1 billion monthly users, makes waves in Australia', ABC, 7 March, viewed 20 May 2018, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-07/wechat-reaches-one-billion-monthly-users/9523278.

Wang, Y 2017, 'Superstar Influencers: China's Internet Celebrities At Heart Of Alibaba's Growth', Forbes, 26 January, viewed 20 May 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2017/01/26/superstar-influencers-chinas-internet-celebrities-at-heart-of-alibabas-growth/#3cb96f362c98.

[br-o-ken-poetry]

Things Boys Have Said To Me In Online Games:

you shouldn’t be here, you’re a ‘chick’

girls can’t / don’t play computer games

I bet you’re rubbish, girls can’t game

‘do u hav a web cam’

I’ll go easy on you

you must be ugly to be a girl who games

fat bitch always online

if I let you win will you skype me

I don’t want the girl on my team

and of course finally:

don’t tell me what I can and can’t say stupid feminist princess don’t come online if you don’t want to be treated this way (legit)

Now I am always one of the first to believe ‘not all men do this, not all men do that’, but the amount of harassment I have received in the world of online gaming is just unreal. Girls should be able to game without being patronized. Girls should be able to game without sex coming into the conversation. Girls should be able to game and not be insulted. Girls should be able to play what they want and do what they want online and not have sexist, objectifying, rude comments hurled at them. It’s not hard to be respectful. Live and let live.

[goblinsofthegalaxy-deactivated2]

Why do all these game developers think I have friends to play their online games with?

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

The Unifying Love of Gaming: The Fascination of Let´s Plays

Gaming online is a fairly new topic for me. Personally, I am not really interested in games even though I sometimes played video games when I was younger. I loved the Sims and spend a lot of time playing it but at one point I stopped. When my friends talk about video games, I basically have no clue what they are talking about. Often, I have seen them watching Let´s Plays on YouTube or on the live streaming video platform Twitch but I could never understand the hype. I have always wondered why my friends find Let´s Plays so interesting and fascinating.

But first of all, what exactly is a Let´s Play?

“Let´s Play videos feature captured play sessions of digital games with added, often humorous commentary by the player(s) through audio or a picture-in-picture frame showing the video’s creator(s) whilst playing the game” (Glas 2015, p. 81).  

The phenomenon of Let´s Plays started back in 2006 on the website “Something Awful” where players posted screenshots of their plays and commented them (Glas 2015, pp. 82). Well-known YouTubers filming their Let´s Plays even earn their income with it. The most successful YouTuber worldwide is the Swedish PewDiePie. His channel is known for his Let´s Plays with 62.6 million subscribers and an estimated salary of $US 12 million (Lynch 2018 & YouTube n.d.).

The viewer does not play the game himself but watches someone else how he is playing it. A Let´s Play is simply for the viewer’s entertainment by just showing the gameplay and commentary and not focusing on the skills of the player. The commentary and reaction of the player is an amusement for the viewer. The viewer can watch the game unfolding even though he is not playing himself. He is watching through the eyes of the player and hearing his commentary making the viewer highly conscious about the procedure (Glas 2015, pp. 82-84).

Overall Let´s Plays are an entertainment for a mass audience that is shaped by the personality of the player. They can be not only seen as a player but also as a storyteller, filmmaker, comedian, radio host and on-air personality (Jacobs 2015).

In order to understand the phenomenon better, I researched for opinions of viewers. Julie Muncy explains on Wired that she always watched her older brother playing video games when she was younger but she didn´t play herself since it was too scary and too mature for her. Later, she started playing video games when she moved to a new city and found herself alone without friends. At that time, video games where a refuge for her. However, playing games was still something she did alone which did not really help her with her loneliness. That was the point when she started watching Let´s Plays (Muncy 2016).

“In a world where playing together on the couch is becoming rarer and rarer, YouTubers offer a substitute by straddling the line between reality stars, critics, and comedians.” (Muncy 2016)

The Let´s Plays form a “proxy community” (Muncy 2016) creating place where people can see themselves more clearly and helping people in isolation to find actual connections in real life. Let´s Plays can bring you closer to people in the online as well in the offline world. It can be for example a hobby that you share with a sibling or friend (Muncy 2016). Let´s Plays are something that can tie you together with somebody else and your friends and make you feel like home (Muncy 2016).

Of course, this is only one perspective and there are without doubt more reasons to watch Let´s Plays.

References:

Glas, R 2015, `Vicarious play: engaging the viewer in let’s Play videos´, Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, vol. 5, no. 1 & 2, pp. 81-86.

Jacobs, H 2015, `An exec at one of YouTube's biggest networks explains one of the most baffling trends on the site´, Business Insider, 01 June, viewed 15 may 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-lets-play-videos-are-so-popular-2015-5?r=US&IR=T.

Lynch, J 2018, `These are the 19 most popular YouTube stars in the world -- and some are making millions´, Business Insider, 03 February, viewed 15 May 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/most-popular-youtubers-with-most-subscribers-2018-2?r=US&IR=T.

Muncy, J 2016, `Why I Watch People Play Videogames On The Internet´, Wired, 21 August, viewed 15 May, https://www.wired.com/2016/08/why-i-watch-lets-plays/.

YouTube n.d., Channel of PewDiePie, viewed 15 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie.

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

[ajuran-deactivated20170827]

you dying bruh

webMD’s answer for everything (via whitegirlsaintshit)

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

Presentation: Public Health Campaigns & Communities

https://prezi.com/p/rewnkf6hi9xu/

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

#CancerFighter: Sharing the fight against cancer on Instagram

When we talked about blogging about a sickness in the lecture, I immediately had to think of a woman on Instagram. Her name on Instagram is “Kimspiriert” and she is from Germany. She already had a good amount of followers on Instagram and her blog when her life changed completely in January 2017.

Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer with only 29 years. Back then, she had two options. Leaving social media and only concentrate on the fight against cancer or continue sharing her posts on Instagram. Kim decided to stay on social media sharing her photos and even more, her cancer story. Her fight against cancer that she called “Zecke”, which translated to tick. Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and her blog were her channels to communicate.

Kim went to the doctor in October 2016 because she felt something in her breast. However, the doctor said it is only a cyst and gave her a cream not considering Kim´s family history. Her mother also had developed breast cancer.

When Kim´s breast cancer was diagnosed it was already in an advanced stage. The cancer had spread metastasis in her bones and liver. The next months Kim continued to share her stories. All her ups and downs. She posted in her story videos how her boyfriend shaved her head, pictures from the hospital, from her scar when her breast was amputated, from her body that gained a lot of weight due to the medication. She filmed herself happy and crying. Sometimes she disappeared from social media for a few days because she had to go back to the hospital and was struggling in the fight against her sickness.e 

Why did Kim share her cancer story?

Blogs and social networks have often been used for the self-documentation of a serious illness. In this way the authors can express themselves and connect to others, “while also undertaking the often all-encompassing and highly intimate emotional, physical and relational management associated with their illness” (McCosker & Darcy 2013, p. 2). Sharing intimate posts about the fight against cancer forms a new connectivity and a productive sociality (McCosker & Darcy 2013, p. 17).

Throughout the time she gained more and more followers. Her Instagram account has 108,000 followers today. More and more people started supporting her, commenting and sending messages. That´s why she named her followers #KimsCrew. 

Kim wanted to raise awareness. This was one of the reasons why she shared her story. So many women neglect their medical screenings. They forget to go to the doctor on a regular basis and check their breast themselves. When she was diagnosed, she already had been using Instagram for five years and a lot of her followers have gone through a lot with her. Kim said in an interview with the German Cosmopolitan that at first she questioned whether she should share her fight against cancer. But since so many people already followed her for a long time, she wanted to pass trough this together with her community. She wanted to encourage her followers and raise awareness so that people will go to check ups regularly. She shared her story not that people feel sorry for her but that her followers become aware (Baldin 2018).

On the 1 January this year, a post appeared on my Instagram. Kim´s family had published a photo explaining that Kim lost the fight against cancer with only 30 years old. I was in a complete shock. I followed her and her story for so long. her photos, her Instagram story everyday made me feel like I knew her. The photo got 85,000 likes and 20,000 comments which is immense for the amount of followers she has. People posted about 4600 pictures with the hashtags #einLichtfürKim (a light for Kim) and #kimscrew. Different newspapers and online media published articles about Kim after her death. After her death, her boyfriend kept posting on his profile. A lot of women messaged him that they got more considerate because of Kim and palpated their breast.

It is crazy that Kim shared her story online and affected so many people. Her followers, including me, sympathised with her being in a complete shock after her death even though we have never met her in real life.

References:

Baldin, C 2018, `Warum diese Bloggerin öffentlich gegen den Brustkrebs kämpfte´, Cosmopolitan, 04 January, viewed 07 May 2018, https://www.cosmopolitan.de/kimspiriert-warum-diese-bloggerin-oeffentlich-gegen-den-brustkrebs-kaempfte-80986.html.

McCosker, A & Darcy, R 2013, `Living with Cancer´, Information, Communication & Societ, pp. 1-20.

[monotonya]

We are all France. Apparently. Though we are never Lebanon, Syria or Iraq for some reason.

(via monotonya)

[two-versions]

A cop crying in Paris after the attacks.

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

Social media in times of attacks: Providing help and spreading mass panic at the same time

The terror attack in Paris on 13 November 2015 was probably the biggest and most crucial terror attack in France in the last few years. Social media took a special role in this attack shaped by individuals using different social networks during the attacks.

The use of social media during the Paris attacks was diverse. Different social media platforms served different necessities. Social media was the place where many first found out about the terror attack in Paris. People in Paris used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to report shootings and to warn others. Users on Twitter shared videos and photos of the happenings in Paris. This footage was also used later by TV and online media. People warned not to go outside and even gave descriptions of the attackers (Mercier 2015; BBC Trending 2015). Twitter provided a whole timeline of the attack at that night.

On Facebook, the Safety Check tool was activated. With this tool users in Paris could mark themselves as safe in order to let family and friends know. This tool was only used for natural disasters before. The Paris attacks were the first time that it was activated for a terror attack (Goel & Ember 2015).

Twitter was also widely used in the attacks. Within 10 hours, there were one million tweets with the hashtag #PorteOuverte (open door). People in Paris offered their homes as a shelter for those who needed it. People who were looking for their family and friends used #RechercheParis. Other users used this hashtag when somebody missing was found alive (Goel & Ember 2015).

Besides people looking for help, shelter or a loved one, Twitter was also used as platform to express the concern about the attacks. People from all over the world, including celebrities, expressed their prayers and condolences on Twitter. The hashtags #JeSuisParis and #PrayforParis went viral within only a few hours. A lot of people also used a profile picture frame of the French flag on Facebook overlaying their profile picture (Goel & Ember 2015; Mercier 2015). However, those tweets were not helpful and did not change anything. It might raise awareness and spread the news of the attacks but in the end it does not help during this time of crisis.

However, all the information that is published on social media during crisis also has it´s downsides. I remember different attacks where a lot of people complained that the TV was still not giving out more information, but you can find so much more on Twitter. There is a good reason for that. The TV channels will first check the information they received in order to make sure that it´s true. On social media people just post whatever they hear or think no matter if they know if it´s true or not. They just want to post to be part of it.

22 July 2016, Munich Germany

One example for this was a shooting that happened in July 2016 in my hometown Munich in Germany. A 18-year old guy suffering from a mental disorder killed 9 people during a shooting in a mall. The Munich police used Twitter in order to keep everyone informed and posted constant updates. They not only tweeted in German but also English and French. Additionally, people shared their own stories on Twitter talking about more shootings that happened in the city centre. However, all of the other shootings turned out to be false alarm. A picture of a mall with blood and dead people on the floor were posted and shared everywhere. It turned out thats this picture was not from the shooting in Munich but from a shooting that happened in Johannesburg before. Within a short period of time, the police couldn´t control the flood of information on Twitter anymore. They even tweeted desperately: "Please don't take photos or video of police action in order to avoid any helpful information for the suspects". (Dyckmans 2016; The Local 2016; Mansholt 2016)

“Nowadays, in the age of social networks, it is no longer the police who have control over the quantity and timing of the release of information, but everyone,” - Thomas de Maiziere, Interior minister of Germany in 2016 (Shuster 2016).

I remember how my phone exploded on that day. People texted me if I am alright. In Whats App groups videos and pictures were spread and people randomly told that they have heard from someone that there is a shooting in another place. All this made me you crazy and afraid. Everyone thought that it is a terrorist attack at different places as it happened in Paris a few months before. However, this was not true. Social media makes is possible to spread information fast. This helped people in Paris to find a safe place. At the same time, this can be harmful since the flow and trueness of tweets can no longer be controlled which can lead to mass panic (Shuster 2016).

References

BBC Trending 2015, ´How the Paris attacks unfolded on social media´, BBC, 17 November, viewed 05 May 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34836214.

Dyckmans, P 2016, ´4 Dinge, die wir nach der Amoknacht über Twitter gelernt haben´, Bayerischer Rundfunk, 26 August, viewed 05 May 2018, https://www.br.de/puls/themen/netz/4-dinge-die-wir-nach-der-amoknacht-ueber-twitter-gelernt-haben-100.html.

Goel, V & Ember, S 2015,´ As Paris Terror Attacks Unfolded, Social Media Tools Offered Help in Crisis´, The New York Times, 14 November, viewed 05 May 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/technology/as-paris-terror-attacks-unfolded-social-media-tools-offered-help-in-crisis.html.

Mansholt, M 2016, ´So erkennen Sie gefälschte Fotos in sozialen Medien´, Stern, 23 July, viewed 05 May 2018, https://www.stern.de/digital/online/muenchen-amoklauf-fakes-6977526.html.

Mercier, A 2015, ´How social media shaped our understanding of the Paris attacks´, The Conversation, 17 November, viewed 05 May, https://theconversation.com/how-social-media-shaped-our-understanding-of-the-paris-attacks-50814.

Shuster, S 2016, ´Munich Police Face Questions Over False Tweets During Shooting´, Time, 25 July, viewed 05 May 2018, http://time.com/4421410/munich-shooting-germany-terrorism-tweets/.

The Local 2016, ´Social media a blessing and a curse in Munich shooting´, 24 July, viewed 05 May 2018, https://www.thelocal.de/20160724/social-media-a-curse-and-a-blessing-in-munich-shooting.

[behexagusthegreat]

But trolling is fun.

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

The thin line between Kanye West & Cyber Bullying

When you talk about social media, you also have to mention trolling. The urban dictionary defines Trolling as: “The art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue (Urban Dictionary 2009).

Kanye West is back on Twitter and already trolling the internet. On Friday night he released a new track called “Lift Yourself” which is his first release since 2016. Before he released it, he teased it on Twitter with the following Tweet (Shifferaw 2018):

People went crazy on Twitter and everybody started talking about his new song which is basically about poop. However, people quickly found out that this song is a troll (Shifferaw 2018 & Koerber 2018). Irrespective of the content of the song, it went viral within a short period of time. The story behind the song has to do with the radio host Ebro Darden. He exposed that Kanye West supported Donald Trump during a conversation causing an uproar on Twitter. Since then Kanye has kept posting pro Trump Tweets and released the song (Variety 2018).

Kanye confused the whole internet with his new song that went viral. Even though that is a funny example of trolling, it can easily escalate and become nasty. Sometimes, trolling can even turn into cyber mobbing harming people. The internet is an anonymous place where people feel safe. It is a lot easier to post something on Twitter than to tell the person in real life. They don´t see them and don´t have to face this person. On the other hand, the internet makes it a lot harder for the person who is being bullied to cope with it. Cyber bullying can get extremely bad when it is done by people you know, for example from your school, your neighbourhood or from a sports team.

But what can the victim do? How can you make it stop? That is not easy.

How do you react to trolls and cyber bullying

Elise Moreau from Lifewire suggests the best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them. Don´t take it personal and try to laugh about it. Often, the people who are trolling have problems themselves. They try to deal with it by trolling other people on the internet. One last suggestion of her is to respond with kind words. A troll would never expect it and this might change his behaviour (Moreau 2018).

Is it the governments task to make laws and fight cyber bullying?

Let´s have a look over to Europe. The European Union co-founded the EU-Initiative called “klicksafe”. “Klicksafe is an awareness campaign promoting media literacy and adequate handling of the internet and new media” (klicksafe n.d.). The organisation also created the “Safer Internet Day” where educationists go to schools in order to talk about cyber bullying with the pupils (Meyer 2018). Even though I think this is already a good start because they are trying to solve the source and not just the problem. However, it will not be enough. One educationist who talks about cyber bullying will not stop people from doing it completely. On the other side, it is also important that the social network sites, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, get stronger in the fight against cyber bullying. This is complex since those networks operate all over the globe and it is not possible to pass one law for the whole world.

Germany is already working on this issue. On the 1 January a new law came into force in Germany. It is called “Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz“. According to that the social networks are legally obligated to delete illicit comments within 24 hours after they were reported. This law tries to target cyber bullying and fake news (Löhre & Theurer 2017).

In order to fight cyber bullying there are two sides. The people who bully and the companies that give the bullies a platform to spread their hate. Cyber bullying can only be battled if we work on the prevention and the distribution. The government also has to take on responsibility in order to help this challenge.

References:

Klicksafe, n.d., What is klicksafe?, viewed 28 April 2018, https://www.klicksafe.de/ueber-klicksafe/die-initiative/project-information-en/what-is-klicksafe/.

Koerber, B 2018, Kanye West trolls us into listening to a song about scooping poop, Mashable, viewed 28 April 2018, https://mashable.com/2018/04/27/kanye-west-new-single-scoop-poop-lift-yourself/#JfUkHWopxmqT.

Löhre, J; Theurer, M 2017, Mobbing-Steuer für Facebook und Google?, Frankfurter Allgemeine, viewed 28 April 2018, http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/facebook-und-google-sollen-mobbing-steuer-zahlen-15243582.html.

Meyer, M 2018, Manchmal gab es schon so grenzwertige Sachen", Deutschlandfunk, viewed 28 April 2018, http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/safer-internet-day-manchmal-gab-es-schon-so-grenzwertige.2907.de.html?dram:article_id=410095.

Moreau, E 2018, Internet Trolling: How Do You Spot a Real Troll?, Lifewire, viewed 28 April 2018, https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-internet-trolling-3485891.

Shifferaw, A 2018, Here’s How People Are Processing Kanye's "Lift Yourself" Troll, Complex, viewed 28 April 2018, http://www.complex.com/author/abel-shifferaw.

[snoopchihuahua]

“I want our government to start buying more books and less bullets.”

My government teacher in class today

[linssweater]

[inthedigitalspace-blog]

Can young teenagers in the US change the world via Twitter?

Social Media has made becoming active so much easier. You don´t even have to go out in the streets anymore. Just send a Tweet in the space of the internet and with some luck, it will go viral and everyone will be talking about it. Showing activism on social media is easy, fast and cheap. It has never been so simple to reach a big amount of people.

Social Media activism is real! Today, social media is not only used to express opinions but to bring people together. Gerbaudo describes it as a form “to choreograph collective action” (Gerbaudo 2012, p.4). 

But can activism on social media really change the world? This depends on the way you do it. Overlaying your profile picture with the French flag after the terrorist attacks has probably changed nothing in the world, except people expressing their grief. However, in the US teenagers right now use social media as their main voice to fight the gun laws.

It was Wednesday the 14th of February in Florida. On this day 17 people were killed by a former student of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. This day changed everything for so many young teenagers. Not only in Parkland but all over the US. The 18-year old Emma González is the face of a new movement called “March for Our Lives”. Four days after the shooting she created a Twitter account (Salamon 2018). Today she has 1,56 Mio. followers (Twitter n.d). Emma uses Twitter in order to share her opinions about gun control. Not only her, but many more students for the high school in Parkland have used social media daily after the shooting their express themselves (Salamon 2018).

The students are angry. They are angry about politics, they are angry about the law. They want to change something. Shootings like this keep happening in the US over and over again. The students are furious that the politics won´t alter the law. This is why they took the Initiative to make their own story. The media stopped talking about the shooting. The students didn´t. They constantly keep posting so the shooting will not be forgotten (Bromwich 2018). 

Twitter helped the movement to spread fast and widely. The hashtag the teenagers used were trending and becoming viral. The students used Twitter as a powerful tool to mobilize the country.

#marchforourlives #neveragain #whyimarch

We should get back to the question whether posting on Twitter helps? The March for our lives movement was able to leave to world of social media and get big in real life. People all over the US came together to protest in the streets.

“The March for Our Lives is the first major statement by Americans born after 1999, who have presented a new template for protest” (Witt 2018)

Across the US March of Our Lives rallies took place in order to demonstrate in support of strict gun control. Hundred of thousands of students went out in the street all over the world to protest in cities like Londony, Tokyo or Sydney. (Laughland & Beckett 2018; Holpuch & Owen 2018)

A march in Washington D.C. with hundred of thousands of students took place. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Paul McCartney, Yolanda Renee King (Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter) and Barack Obama are supporting the movement.

The March for Our Lives shows that activism can spread through social media. However, it mostly won´t change anything as long as it stays in the digital space. The students of Parkland were able to gain recognition all over the world through their protests, carrying it out off social media and taking it to real life. Nobody knows how long this movement will last or if it will change something in the end. Time will tell. But the students are already on the right path.

References:

· Bromwich, J.E. 2018, How the Parkland Students Got So Good at Social Media, The New York Times, viewed 18 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/us/parkland-students-social-media.html.

· Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets, Pluto Press, New York.

· Holpuch, A & Owen, P 2018, March for Our Lives: hundreds of thousands demand end to gun violence – as it happened, The Guardian, viewed 18 April 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/mar/24/march-for-our-lives-protest-gun-violence-washington.

· Laughland, O & Beckett, L 2018, March for Our Lives : thousands join anti-gun protests around the world, The Guardian, viewed 18 April 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/24/washington-march-for-our-lives-gun-violence.

· Salamon, E 2018, March for Our Lives awakens the spirit of student and media activism of the 1960s, The Conversation, viewed 18 April 2018, https://theconversation.com/march-for-our-lives-awakens-the-spirit-of-student-and-media-activism-of-the-1960s-93713.

· Twitter, n.d., Profile of Emma González, viewed 18 April, https://twitter.com/emma4change.

· The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-march-for-our-lives-presents-a-radical-new-model-for-youth-protest)

· Witt, E 2018, The March for Our Lives Presents a Radical New Model for Youth Protest, The New Yorker, viewed 18 April 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-march-for-our-lives-presents-a-radical-new-model-for-youth-protest.