The Unexpectable influence of Online Activism
I barely to join the Online Activism before, because I thought that my opinion is not that important like I guess. I keep this the theory for a long time until I watched a video from YouToBe.
This video taught me a new idea. It said that usually, the ‘shape’ of our social class is a pyramid.
The ordinary people are at the bottom of the pyramid who do not have the right of speech. However, only a few people get the right to control the world who are at the top of the pyramid.
This situation is pathetic, but it is realistic.
Nevertheless, there is still a method to turn things around. That is the power of the masses. If you expect something could draw the attention of the authority, you have to get lots of back-ups.
The ‘shape’ of social class will change to the Inverted triangle, because of the mass public opinion.
My most recent Online Activism was in April. More specifically, it is an online petition which is ‘#ChineseLivesMatters Calling a federal investigation into the United Airlines incident on 10th April 2017’.
I knew this news through a video ‘Doctor dragged from United Airlines flight’ . I just got angry when I was watching that video. I have no idea about what can I do for this. Surprisingly, after this video went viral online, many people began to denounce the United Airlines’s terrible service.
Those comments came from different people, different religion and mixed race. Finally, the United Airlines made a public apology even the attitude is not that good. At least, we know that the influential people start to care about the voices of the crowd. Like the article said that a recent analysis of studies of the impact of Internet use on civic engagement seems to confirm the positive effects of the Internet (Christensen, 2011). The 38 studies span 1995–2005, and the results suggest that the Internet has a positive impact on civic engagement, although the strength of the effect is limited. Furthermore, it indicates that the influence is increasing over time, which suggests that the importance of the Internet may be growing. If not the convenience of the Internet gives us a say, we might not even see a perfunctory apology.
To sum up, yes, I think my selected action has the potential to result in real-world change. Maybe I can only just influence a small number of people, but with the help of the Internet, a few people can affect most people. Also, there is no evidence for an adverse effect of the Internet on offline participation (Christensen, 2011). Eventually, we can be seen and heard by moguls literally. I think that is a good thing.
Reference
Christensen, Henrik Serup . “Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means?” The activities of Internet activists, vol. 16, no. 2-7, 1 Feb. 2011.
