Activism has been led by the youth of every generation seeking a future that has implemented the necessary changes society needed at given points in time. Nowadays, activism can be said to lean more towards digital awareness and organization relying heavily on the internet for most of its impact on society. As someone who is a part of Gen-Z I haven’t been around long enough to witness the shift between physical and digital organization but I have been able to witness how social media activism brings about change and has been responsible for unheard voices finally getting the attention and value they deserve. 

In Wendy Syfret’s ‘How to Think Like an Activist’, they state how the internet has aided in important information, facts, stories, news, etc. no longer being subjected to “The traditional hierarchies of what and who gets reported.” Less news gets censored by those who feel the need to censor it and as a result, social issues are no longer (for the most part) swept under the rug and deemed nonexistent. Because of this social media activism has in a way revolutionized the way that we are able to raise awareness on a massive scale. As the globe becomes more and more digitized as a result of widespread technology, there is almost no way to sweep a political, social, or economic crisis under the radar without a small percentage of the population knowing and therefore spreading it across useful platforms. However social media activism does have its drawbacks. As quickly as it grows in numbers, the foundation and its momentum are not easily and consistently maintained. A movement can gain mass popularity and fizzle out in a matter of days, weeks, even months. In my lifetime, I’ve seen this happen with the hashtag movements #SaveSudan, #BlackLivesMatter in mid 2020, #FreePalestine, #PrayforParis, #Icebucketchallenge, where the public will all collectively engage in raising awareness but will soon forget about the hashtag as its trendiness fades, forget and move on to the next movement/social issue. Hashtag activism is a strength and a flaw in the case of internet activism, because as useful as it is in increasing the speed at which the information reaches the public, we have also been programmed to only rely on them for limited periods of time for limited purposes. 

However there have been successful movements that maintained momentum through the start of a hashtag which then blossomed into in-person organization and action for change. Like BLM and MeToo, which have had frequent spikes in attention on social media. Despite these spikes they still maintain a solid foundation, and with that they are able to do more than just raise awareness. These movements and their actions being sustained resulted in infamous, vile politicians being exposed and called to the court to explain their involvment in sexual assault and  pedophilia. It led to some but not all indictments of officers who have brutally murdered innocent black women, men, and children. I believe that if the public is livid enough, and if it affects just the right amount of the population, that the use of social media for activism will only be a tool used for the benefit of the movement overall and not it’s primary source.

Vanessa mentioned in her response that “Take the crisis in the Middle East as an example. If it were not for social media, we would not know the severity of the situation out there. The media rarely ever covers the situation, and when they do, they do not cover the full scope of it. However, with social media, we can see the stories of the people out there. “ And I have to agree that when it comes to international news, we often wouldn’t see much of it if it weren’t for social media. I believe this is largely due to the US trying to uphold the image it wants to project to others.