Does Online Activism really work?…
One example of online activism I looked into was when teens on Tiktok messed with Trump’s Tulsa rally in 2020. K-pop fans which are mostly teens banded together with people who use Tiktok (mostly teens and young adults) to reserve rally tickets but were not going to the rally. Trump’s people said the prank didn’t affect the attendance numbers but then Trump wanted to ban Tiktok. Not a lot of people showed up like Trump’s people said they were going to. I would say this was online activism because these people reserved tickets so other people could not reserve that actually wanted to go. Maybe people who were Trump supporters could not attend because all the seats were reserved. These people basically stopped people from supporting Trump at a rally and stopped them from hearing his ideas at the rally. It raised awareness of how unpopular Trump was getting and how teens/young adults did not support Trump. This rally looked like a failure and maybe unmotivated Trump supporters from voting for him or made Trump look less powerful and supported which could have affected the outcome of the election. Young adults and teens made their voices heard through an online prank even if they could not vote yet.
Credit: Two articles about my example for you to read if you want.
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1241001
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.amp.html
In my own words, online activism is spreading awareness of social injustices by using social media and technology. This relates to George Couros’s definition of digital leadership because online activism can raise awareness on social justice issues with technology and with that awareness others can be educated to improve the lives of people who are not being heard or represented. Online activism spreads awareness but also finds ways for people to tell their stories (Berlatsky, 2015). Through storytelling, people can be educated on the injustices other people face and inspire people to do better in their daily lives to help people who are silenced. They can be allies. Digital leadership is all about helping improve people’s lives and this can be achieved through listening to people and their struggles. If we listen and read from people who do not have a voice in their lives unless it is online, we could look at how we contribute to social justice issues like racism and sexism in our daily lives. This can lead to everyone starting to practice what they preach in their lives to improve the lives of others in their life like women who are told they are inferior or African American men who are profiled every day. We can step in and defend people facing injustices and not just tweet #BLM and say police brutality is wrong. Instead, we can show action in our lives and the lives of others.
In the article “Hashtag Activism Isn’t a Cop-Out” Berlatsky states that “…thinkpieces present hashtag activism as vanity activism, in which narcissistic pronouncements substitute for actual engagement…” (Berlatsky, 2015). I may be of the unpopular opinion but I disagree that online activism can achieve change. I do believe that we are confusing online outrage for activism. It is starting to become enough for people to post something with #BLM and that passes as activism. To me, it isn’t. In that quote, I agree that posting a hashtag is a form of vanity activism instead of real online activism. If done right I believe online activism can make a difference like how DeRay Mckesson is doing it from the “Hashtag Activism Isn’t a Cop-Out” article but the way it is being done right now feels like nothing is changing. Due to personal experience from this past summer, I have seen outrage, and rightly so. I was outraged at George Floyd but I was not surprised. I was mad about Breonna Taylor but when Breonna Taylor was killed I did not hear the same outrage from the public because it was before George Floyd. Police brutality has been happening for a long time and this past summer a lot of my friends on social media acted like it was the first time it happened with George Floyd. On my Snapchat, my friends would post hashtags like #BLM or #ICan’tBreathe for George Floyd. Then Jacob Blake happened and the posts with those hashtags stopped. There was a selective outrage from my friends and this is an example of online activism that is not making change. They were spreading awareness but did not do the same for Jacob Blake. My friends posted about George Floyd but did nothing with Jacob Blake. My friends were outraged and posted about it but they were not taking part in online activism or effecting change. I think the outrage is being thought of as online activism and it is not because your outrage is not making the lives of African American men better. Online activism has to be consistent to make a change. It is not enough for my friends or other people to post #BLM and think that they are activists. People like DeRay use social media to tell their stories when they have been silenced and share information to inform others which spreads awareness. This helps give a voice to different communities.
We can use digital tools to reach out to people. In the article “Hashtag Activism Isn’t a Cop-Out” McKesson says that “You are enough to start a movement. Individual people can come together around things that they know are unjust. And they can spark change. Your body can be part of the protest; you don’t need a VIP pass to protest. And Twitter allowed that to happen” (Berlatsky, 2015). This shows that social media can open the doors for online activism. On my Snapchat, I have a group chat that is used to talk about politics and social justice issues. We check on each other like how a certain event has affected our mental health. We have a little community where we all see and acknowledge unjust things. We come on Snapchat to talk about it. We educate each other from our different stories and perspectives. This makes us better people in our daily lives. In this group chat, we share protest locations or upcoming voting opportunities because we want to elect people that will help change this country for the better.
