Social Media Activism: Harmful or Helpful?
We have all seen the internet “cancel” people, whether they are politicians or celebrities. For example, in 2017 the New Yorker published an article that exposed Harvey Weinstein, a revered Hollywood movie executive, of sexual assault. This article fueled the growing #MeToo movement, spreading all across social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Weinstein and others were exposed for their crimes through social media and journalism, proving to be an effective medium for exposing corruption and overall activism.
Social media provides constant and global access to information that can be both beneficial and detrimental. When we look at social media, it helps dispense information that many news outlets would not even bother to pick up on. It helps educate people; as Jillian Sunderland, a sociology Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, said, “Social media activism has really given us unprecedented access to democratize information because the majority of young people get their news from social media.” But despite these benefits, media activism conjures several different detrimental effects. Because of the transient nature of social media trends, many important causes and issues are treated as fleeting trends and disregarded after time has passed. But just how helpful or detrimental can social media activism be?
To start, there are many cases of large and impactful movements that have succeeded because of social media. For example, movements like Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter (BLM), #MeToo, and the Arab Spring, were all amplified through social media platforms.
Diving deeper into the #MeToo movement, it was one of the first and most successful movements that used social media as a platform to increase visibility. Gaining traction from October 2017, the #MeToo movement spread virally through the use of hashtags on different social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The movement aimed for women all over the world to share their stories of sexual abuse and harassment. The movement enabled discussions around the incessant harassment women face and also created a safe space for sexual abuse survivors to tell their stories and receive support and solidarity. The #MeToo movement is considered to be one of the most successful media activism movements, with 96 million tweets pertaining to the #MeToo movement being collected from 2010 to 2017 by researchers of the PEORIA Project at George Washington University. The movement showed that social media can magnify the voices of both advocates and survivors themselves, thus being able to amplify the message as well as make palpable steps toward change.
Another instance of a successful movement facilitated by social media is the Black Lives Matter or BLM movement. The BLM movement and foundation started gaining major traction in the summer of 2020, when news of George Floyd, a victim of police brutality and racial profiling, went mainstream across news outlets in the United States. Although the movement was popular prior to the death of George Floyd, the movement reached new levels after his death. Over 15 million people across the U.S. participated in protests against police brutality and racial profiling in the subsequent weeks following Floyd’s death. Social media aided the movement by helping spread information about institutional racism and methods to help the cause of racial equality. It has also helped facilitate and initiate important conversations on topics regarding racism and Black people’s experiences with police thus leading to many institutional changes and investigations across the U.S.
The trajectory of Black Lives Matter’s reemergence in both social media and politics works in tandem with the research done by researchers Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia in 2014. They found that there are four stages of social movements that utilize social media: 1. A triggering event, 2. Media response, 3. Viral organization, and 4. Physical response. In the case of BLM, the murder of George Floyd was the triggering event that sparked the rise in social interactions and posts pertaining to BLM and racism. The media responded by calling for actions against the police, calling out racists, reaching out to state representatives and senators, and much more. Then, people who were passionate about the cause started participating in discussions and taking action both online and offline, culminating in a physical response, which was protests all across the U.S. The BLM movement succeeded in the four stages thus being able to move out from being just an online movement to an offline movement that actually brought change. There is no doubt that the BLM movement was greatly successful in addressing some issues of racism and police brutality across the U.S.
Activism on social media can bring many benefits to movements and individuals. It not only helps dispense information and makes it accessible to all, but it also helps gather people with similar values and interests to have an open space to discuss. Because of the accessibility of social media, people are able to share their stories of being a victim of something or their experiences as a marginalized group, thus being able to get first-hand experiences directly from the underrepresented. As seen in movements like BLM and #MeToo, if done right, digital activism can have great value and bring about real and tangible change.
However, one of the main criticisms of media activism and media activists is that often times people are participating in reactionary activism, where people are simply responding to the next crisis without knowing the context or the conditions of the situation. Often referred to as “slacktivism,” it is when people “support a cause by performing simple measures but not necessarily engaged or devoted to making a change.” Mixed with the ephemeral nature of social media trends and activism, it often creates this mix of new topics or new crises that are focused on for about a week or two and then completely disregarded. It seems as if every week there’s a new digital cause that people focus on. Because of this, much of the activism done on social media can be seen as insincere or disingenuous.
One example of this is during the Black Lives Matter movement, the trend #BlackOutTuesday intended to spread awareness of racism and injustices Black people face every day. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses posted black squares on their social media feeds to show solidarity. However, this had unintended adverse effects by drowning out and silencing actual posts with relevant resources and information. Although it wasn’t intended to have negative effects, it did absolutely nothing to help the cause. Furthermore, most people who participated in this trend did not delve deeper into the cause. As activist and president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Nupol Kiazolu said, “Posting is just one step, if you can’t come out to the front lines, there’s always something more you can do besides post.” When social issues and activism are adapted to social media, the true cause and meaning of the issue faces the possibility of diminishing. To prevent this from happening, people need to be willing to engage more or learn more about the content and issue that they promote. Otherwise, it provides no true value to the cause.
In general, it seems that social media activism does bring positive impacts to different issues. Movements like the Arab Spring, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter all benefited from the usage of social media. It provides a space where people can gather and dispense information, therefore, bringing more traction to the issue. However, because of the transient nature of social media trends, many social issues can be treated as a trend, meaning that it is less meaningful and sincere, often referred to as a phenomenon called slacktivism. Although there are no inherent negatives to slacktivism, in the long run, it can lead to failing campaigns, large amounts of criticism, and the spread of misinformation. To prevent this from happening, people who are actively engaging in activist work on social media should be willing to delve deeper into the issue itself, rather than just relying on social media for all bases of information.