Examples of Activism via Digital Media

One specific example of activism via digital media is the use of Twitter for demonstrations in Iran. While some believe Twitter played an essential role in helping protestors gather and gain momentum, others say there was no such Twitter Revolution at all (see Malcolm Gladwell's piece in the New Yorker). They argue that it only appears Twitter played an essential role, because the West's primary way of finding out about the events was through the social networking site. Furthermore, they say most of the Tweets we see from the demonstrations are in English, which probably would not have created as much momentum as if the posts were in Farsi. This highlights a big issue with digital media in general-- it's very difficult to gauge the effect it has, especially in social activism. In the case of the Iran demonstrations, it is nearly impossible to discern what real effect Twitter had on the protests-- did we (the West) only find out about what was being tweeted? And, in that case, what was left out? How else did the demonstrations spread? Because it is impossible to find out whether or not a specific tweet or Facebook post actually had an effect on someone, it is difficult to gauge the effect of digital media on activism.

This is similar to the Kony 2012 campaign (see famous video). The video spread entirely through digital media, mainly Facebook and Twitter. Due to the way it spread, it is difficult to discern what effect it actually had on people, and whether people were really interested in what was going on. Facebook and Twitter make it so easy for people to simply "like" or "share" or "tweet" posts that it becomes almost meaningless. Furthermore, from my own observations, it appears Kony 2012 became more of a trend than a movement. It seemed to be cool to share the video, and if one didn't like or share it, others viewed it as insensitive or uncool. What is clear, though, is how quickly this trend died down. Not only did it become the target of numerous attacks on Invisible Children's goals and practices, people also just seemed to lose interest. The following graph from Trendistic, a site that follows Twitter trends, clearly illustrates how interest in Kony quickly disappeared.

Percentage of Twitter Tweets about Kony

What seems to be the issue is that solely advocating something through the internet, such as the Kony 2012 campaign, fails to keep the interest of people. Since so many people have access to digital media, and it is so easy to advertise one's wishes and desires, it becomes easy to overlook things that actually may have great significance, like Kony 2012. Furthermore, even if one does consider the Kony campaign of utmost importance, Facebook and Twitter make the campaign easy to forget by providing users with constant new, interesting information in the form of status updates, articles people post, etc.

This seems to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issues with digital media for social activism. It's just too hard to maintain people's interest for longer than the millisecond it takes them to "like" or "share" and image or video. In an effort to combat the SOPA/PIPA legislation, many websites, including Google, Wikipedia, and Tumblr, carried out "blackouts" which symbolized what said legislation could potentially do to the internet. Wikipedia's blackout actually made their pages unavailable for 24 hours. 

How will kids finish their homework??

While this certainly sparked the attention of millions of internet users, once the blackout day was over, most people soon forgot about the legislation. During the time of the blackout, many of my Facebook friends were discussing the SOPA/PIPA legislation. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a single post about it in the past couple months, while the legislation still hasn't come close to dying.

Ultimately, while digital media makes it very easy to gain the attention of many people, it really struggles to maintain their commitment to whatever cause is being advocated.