Question

How has social media affected your perceptions of activism?
Do you think a voice amplified by social media is more or less powerful? Why?

Answer 1

Activism be it social or political calls for advocating and highlighting issues faced by groups of individuals on an organisational level, societal level, or the national level. Before the rise of social media, activism would mean active engagement in an active way with people in the real ground and mobilizing on generating awareness on issues which are wrong. In the contemporary time, with an increasing platform such as Twitter and YouTubes, anyone can speak anything against anything. We can no longer differentiate between an activity based on ground and an activist who speaks in the media. Overall, there is a changing perception that speaking of something (an issue) equates to raising a voice. This misses the generations who are not online and who needs active in-person engagement.

The nature of social media is such that there are moments of trends- the news would surfaced and make a trend and immediately it will be replaced by another trend. For a voice, which seems to be amplified merely because everyone whoever is online is talking does not equate to the overall awareness of the people. The activity is virtual, it is limited and rarely gets translated into real actions. It shows an apparent powerful mode but in the end, it is hyperreal. It is less powerful and lacks real actions.