Saturday, June 27, 2020
Social Media and the Fight for Social Justice
The Room for Debate article "Is Digital Connectedness Good or Bad for People?" focuses on the positives and negatives of digital connectedness. An argument presented by Noa G. Slaney, a proponent, piqued my interest. Slaney remarks on how online activism transforms the world. She utilizes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge as an example. The Internet challenge raised over 115 million dollars. Digital connectedness has also created movements such as Lean In, which contended for ending gender inequality. The Internet has ostensibly created a new model of activism that advocates for social justice. Currently, the Black Lives Matter Movement has gained a vast deal of awareness. The Movement protests for equality for Black/African American people. The Movement exploded after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Due to digital connectedness, hundreds of accounts of injustices against Black/African American people have circulated. Positive actions are being taken by officials in response to digital connectedness, specifically social media. Governments have passed new laws and changed policies. Despite the outstanding actions that are finally being taken because of social platforms, some users are not content. Some users have asked for content creators to "return to normal." Amongst those people are people who choose to remain ignorant. Some Internet users have access to millions of resources, yet they choose to remain ignorant of social issues. They argue that social media should be a way to "get away" from the world. Others have used Internet platforms to fight against movements. Are these people justified in their comments and actions? Should content creators revert to their previous content despite there still being a lot to do? If the answers to the previous questions are no, what ways can society educate citizens on these matters?
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I agree when you say that people choose to be ignorant despite having internet access. The internet is an invaluable source of information, but people only look up what interests them. Bigots, racists, and ignorant people may use the internet but only to confirm what they already believe in. This is a form of confirmation bias. People do not actively try to seek out different opinions, and so people remain ignorant. I have not heard people say that content creators should "return to normal". These comments are not very justified because it implies the Black Lives Matter Movement is something bizarre and new. I think content creators should revert to previous content because they are entertainers and not activists. Content creators are going to revert back to their old content anyway because the movement is a trend to many of them. It's an excuse to appear like a good person to their audience. Even if there is a lot left to do I doubt most content creators could contribute anything meaningful. Currently, people usually learn about these matters in history class and sometimes in an English class. I believe schools should make entire classes about racism in America. However, there is no guarantee students will care about these classes anymore than they care about any other class.
ReplyDeleteAt this point in time the internet is the best place for activism. Not only has technology already taken over with everyone using it anyways, but after hundreds of years it is shown that social media is actually making a change. Activists have already tried everything else, but no change happened. With social media we are now actually creating a large voice against these racial injustices. The people who chose to stay ignorant are apart of the problem. If you are for the movement and you chose to stay silent then you are not an ally since you made the choice to stay quiet. As some people say "close mouths don't get fed". The school education system is not the best with sharing this type of information, so the second best way for educating people would be to simply teach your friends and family.
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