The Power of Digital Activism
Digital activism has risen with the increased use of the internet and social media. It is when social media or the internet are used as tools to bring about social or political change. It has been seen the most on Twitter with hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and #ALSIceBucketChallenge as a few examples which are known as hashtag activism. With the capabilities of the internet to be accessed by almost anyone, digital activism is an important method in educating people about topics as well as allowing them to spread the word themselves as well.
However, on the internet, there are always two sides to the topic of digital activism. While it is an easy and quick method of educating people on a topic, it can also only do so much. Digital activism is, in the end, only words on the internet and often requires further action outside of the internet to be effective in the world. They can play a big role in starting movements, but they need a real-world push to continue on to become their full potential as movements. It also begins to be a problem when people begin to overpower the main movement with their idea of digital activism, an event that happened just last year after the death of George Floyd between the #BlackLivesMatter movement and #BlackoutTuesday. Blackout Tuesday was a day where many people posted a black box on their Instagram in an attempt to show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The day had originally been an attempt by two music insiders to pause business as usual across the music industry but it was quickly taken out of their hands by the public. It began to be a problem though when users began to pair #BlackoutTuesday with #BlackLivesMatter which quickly drowned out the important posts that were being made by the movement. People questioned if that use of digital activism was for the best, and while the concept of it was originally fine, it became a problem as people misunderstood its purpose in an attempt to participate in digital activism.
That is just one problematic case in a sea of effective hashtags though, and digital activism still plays a powerful part in affecting the world. It allows topics to be addressed worldwide that many people may not have realized was a problem beforehand. Smaller countries and communities are able to spread the word of their issues in a wider manner and gain help from people they may not have been able to reach otherwise. The smallest of stories can reach the entire world through digital activism and reach levels it may not have achieved on its own.
One of the major examples of digital activism in the past few years was the #OscarsSoWhite movement that started during the Oscars in 2015 when there was only one nominee out of the main Oscar categories who was not White. It became a push for more inclusivity in the media industry and called for an examination of the representation within the industry which was notoriously known for being full of White Males. It called for change and people began to respond to it as the movement grew and while the media industry is still adjusting with time, it has at least been improved since the 2015 Oscars.
