Social media has become a prime place for news and events to be published on issues and injustices that are happening all over the world. In the recent decade, social media has blown up with the amount of people using it for all sorts of ways to express themselves. The biggest thing that interests me is the importance of movements and activism to be shown on social media and essentially how both will make a difference to the upcoming future users. Some of the more prominent topics that advocate my views about social media bringing a positive change to the future is the “#MeTooMovement/ #HowIWillChange” and the “I, Too, Am social media movement”. Both of these movements have taken place on a number of different social media platforms and have impacted thousands of people around the world to speak up about their problems.
Social media has brought up issues that would usually be overlooked, and instead has made them into a trend. The article “#HowIWillChange: Engaging men and boys in the #MeToo movement”, talks about a study that aimed to capture the discussion of how social media created a movement where men, can have a discussion about sexual violence and the importance of awareness. They wanted to explore the idea of Rape Culture and engaging men and boys into the movement. Especially, they advocated to tie in social media, and see the factor that it played in creating the movement in the first place. Having the MeToo movement online, created a greater diversity of voices. As the article states, social media had become “a way for oppressed groups to come together, unite their message, and share their unique stories through a common word or phrase on a social media platform (Maas et al., 2018)”. Their view was that social media had been created to be a platform to have an open discussion about “rape culture” and sexual violence. The initial idea was that creating a movement online would create a community using social media as a positive tool, to share their stories and experiences, and help out others that might need advice.
As with everything, social media has its downfall. During their study, they did come across users who were afraid of talking about their experiences because of the backlash they may receive on social media. Some users were afraid of being perceived as “weak” or “gay” for talking about their feelings from their male peers. Many would argue that social media has a negative tendency because everything is happening behind a screen. Some social media users are also commonly known for judging and oppressing one another’s opinions. And to an extent I do agree that because everything is happening behind a screen, people become less hesitant to criticize and even bully other people for their views and experiences. In this specific topic, toxic masculinity starts to come through, and some men start to feel embarrassed for their kind. And so I believe that’s what makes those negative comments. But many users supported the movement by saying a number of things. One was that some users were making ways to demolish rape culture. Some other users used hashtags to fully express their anger towards the unfair treatment that men were getting. And others were showing their resilience to the toxic masculinity. The Me Too movement, especially on social media blew up because many people began to come out and talk about their own stories and how they survived from their problems.
Having this movement published on social media is very important for the future generation of users because social media is a place that is essentially creating history. The internet and social media is the future. Newspapers and in person interaction are slowly dismantling in today’s day and age. And so the importance of publishing and talking about pressing issues on social media is very vital for change in our future. In this article, they say that, it will teach the future generations, values and beliefs that would help dismantle rape culture. This includes teaching children to respect others and how boys should respect women, and how girls should be taught to be more confident.
It is important to express and talk on social media about important issues that are happening to our communities and people. The article “A critical discourse analysis of the I, Too, Am social media movement” talks about, a study aimed to show the awareness that social media portrayed on racism and the I, Too, Am campaign. It shed light on the racism that black people in college experience. In Harvard University, black students created this idea by writing down the racial micro-aggression that they experienced while attending college. They then took photos of them and posted it on social media to promote this play. Within a couple of months, black students from all across the US and different countries, replicated the photos. This illustrated the pervasiveness of student racial marginalization around the world. It is important to show awareness how social media is portrayed on racism and the effects that it has on society. As stated “students used social media to advocate for institutional change and to develop counterspaces of direct expression, positive coping, counter hegemony, and community building”. Social media was used to reinforce confidence and show themselves in a positive manner. Social media demonstrated students’ response and resistance to racial micro-aggressions and a call to action against institutionalized campus racism. The social media sites were created as a direct response to the negative treatment the students received on their campuses and the lack of a safe space to engage in dialogue and action regarding the racial micro-aggressions they were experiencing. All of the in person racial slurs and disrespect black people were getting started to make it seem that the past movements were all for nothing. But now, because of social media, sites were provided to be a place of healing and away from hostile racial climate. Black people started to feel more comfortable and relaxed when talking about their hardships and struggles.
The importance of creating the movement online was that the techniques that the campaign made were reused on social media by online users and so it helped spread the word. Social media created a relationship between the student organizers and followers. And so rather than collecting signatures for petitions, these retweets and shares on facebook and twitter showed the support and investment. Social media allowed for activism that operated beyond individuals and institutions to impact national and international landscapes. Social media played a critical role in centering and furthering students’ activism beyond constraints of time and geography. It became this place for students of color to experience positive outcomes including greater sense of belonging, meaningful relationships and support systems, and strategies for responding to racism. The future social media users would understand a lot from our time and learn the importance of community.
To continue the thought of social media being toxic. Like a lot of things social media is not perfect. People that use social media have the right to talk about whatever they like, even if it is offensive or hurtful. Users still have freedom of speech and expression even on social media. And so because of this, many object and say that more bullying occurs like cyberbullying, and the idea of cat-fishing(or when a person is lying about who they are) and essentially the anxiety around not knowing who exactly is talking to you, or about you. And so because of that, there is more reasoning to circulate depression and anxiety around social media. Yet that might be true, social media has still evidently created a more concrete bond with a community. Social media has spread important and heavy topics all over the world. It has opened conversations that were long overdue. Ultimately the future generations views are at stake here. It is vital that we continue to promote movements and activists on social media to give the future users the correct history. The discovery of promoting movements and activism on social media will have significant implications to us now, because we are connecting with people all over the world about challenging topics, as well in the future for people to learn from our mistakes and our achievements.
Having to be part of a generation that came from social media. We have essentially lived on it most of our lives. So seeing important topics being presented on a platform that we typically only use for our own representation is important and interesting. The importance of using social media to cover movements and activism is key for my generation and the future. Social media has become a prime place for news and events to be advertised and expressed on. People would want to know what is happening in the world through social media.
Sources:
Mwangi, G. C. A., Bettencourt, G. M., Malaney, V. K. (2018). Collegians creating
(counter)space online: A critical discourse analysis of the I, Too, Am social media
movement. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 11,
146–163.
PettyJohn, M. E., Muzzey, F. K., Maas, M. K., McCauley, H. L. (2019). #HowIWillChange:
Engaging men and boys in the #MeToo movement. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20, 612–622.
