Social Media’s impact on activism and protest:
The way the world is coming together to bring about political and social change has transformed over time. It now seems that social media is enough to spread a message to everyone and get them acting quickly all across the world.
Due to the advance in technology and the usage of social media, people are able to share messages and warnings within few seconds. People are able to reach others and connect as quick as possible. With features like Facebook Live and Instagram Live people are able to view real life scenarios instantly allowing them to take an action as soon as possible. These developments in technology actually increases the chances of people acting and taking action as watching a live video with disturbing visuals is more effective and alarming than opposed to reading an article regarding a live update of a situation. This allows people to witness the reality and how people are placed in such terrifying situations, hence influencing them to act. Social media content over the past years has drawn people’s attention to petrifying situations that has taken place. The 2014 Sydney Lindt Café siege was a stressful incident that had everyone in shock and tears. This occurred on the 15–16 December when a single gunman named Man Haron Monis an Iranian born refugee and Australian citizen, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt Café. The siege took place for around 16 hours where two innocent hostages lives were lost. This attack raised a lot of awareness all over Australia as well international and kept people updated on what was happening every minute during the attack. Thanks to social media people were alerted and were able to take action in any way to help stop the hostage. A hashtag such as #I’llridewithyou was initiated on Instagram and Facebook to help raise awareness and make people feel safe. Social media provides people with the opportunity to take a stand and make a difference even if they are thousands of miles away from a scene. Online protests are now a common act as they allow people to be a part of them and make a decision to help a cause. Online petitions have helped in raising awareness and motivating people to stand up for the right thing. The recent incident of an 8- year old girl Asifa who was abducted, raped and murdered in Kathua is a horrifying scene that has left people with unanswered questions. This sad and atrocious news was announced on a lot of social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram. A group of women from Jammu and Kashmir took the initiative to appeal for justice for Asifa by starting a petition on Facebook. This was done through change.org where their aim was to get 3,000,000 people to sign a petition in order to keep the case open and continue the search for criminals as well as to get justice for the innocent little Asifa. This petition allowed people on Facebook to share it where their friends could like, share and open it to sign it. This helped spread the message unite people to raise awareness. A hashtag of #justiceforAsifa was also initiated on Facebook and Instagram to increase the awareness more efficiently and get people standing up for justice for Asifa. Social media is a great platform to raise awareness and influence people to make a change. However, it can sometimes be misused where important messages or stories are hidden amongst memes or jokes and are not taken serious enough. If social media is used in appropriate ways to reach people and alert them, then it is the most efficient space to spread messages and help the world as quick as possible.
References:
nverse. (2018). How Social Media Will Start Revolutions in 2026. [online] Available at: https://www.inverse.com/article/21806-how-social-media-could-influence-uprisings-2026 [Accessed 24 May 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). 2014 Sydney hostage crisis. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Sydney_hostage_crisis [Accessed 24 May 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Kathua rape case. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathua_rape_case [Accessed 24 May 2018].
