True Activism

Technology is what binds us together. Social media has become a ways of sharing information, finding a perfect match, and keeping in touch with old friends or family members. In this sense, social media is a very convenient option for communiation. Recently, activism has been added to the list of what social media is capable of achieveing. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his essay, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, "The new tools of social media have reinvented social activism." This statement proves true with all of the hashtags on Twitter supporting different causes and demands for justice. But, can this really be called social activim, or is it just a glorifyed form of participation and awareness?

For example, there is the story of Ahmed and the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. This child brought a homemade clock to his school and was arrested on the suspicions that the clock was actually a bomb. He was later cleared of his accusations when people including Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama invited him to visit their offices and supported his interest in science. The hashtag was bounced around for a while on social media and everything came to a happy end when Ahmed was offered these opportunities and moved on from his school. The people that actively retweeted this story and offered their support. While this made the people retweeting this act happy and self satisfied, it was not true activism.

"Social networks are effective at increasing participation--by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires." This perfectly describes how "activism" on social media is. The people retweeting these hashtags and reblogging these posts are sitting safely behind a phone screen. They are not getting into the issue at hand and they have no real personal connection to the words that they are repeating. Now, there can certainly be a personal or moral duty to support those who are falsely accused of crimes not committed. Social media has even served to being light to subjects that would have otherwise been looked over or completely forgotten. But unless the person preaching these words are actually causing the change that they so desire, then the word "activist" cannot be applied.