Social Media x Social Change: The Face of Protest in a Digital World
Protests, in any age, are the sound of democracy at work. Not to insert the token Gandhi quote here, but one Indian independence activist famous for his nonviolent acts of civil disobedience once said: “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.” (Okay, fine. Yes, it was Gandhi.) That is to say, not only are protests inevitable, but they are necessary for the maintenance of a healthy, engaged society. The kids today call this “woke,” by the way.
True, though.
In its early days, acts of civil disobedience—the more formal term for protests—were bound by time and space. Movements like the Boston Tea Party, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the abolition of slavery including Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad were all tied to the ‘physicalness’ of actions… But how has it shifted in our tech-forward world?
The use of hashtags has been a powerful tool in connecting people in pursuit of common causes. This week, I read about #BlackTwitter in Hashtag Publics. In it, Meredith Clark discusses the building of a marginalized community via dialogue on Twitter amongst the African American community in the United States. She asserts that the simple acts of dialogue and story sharing among the participants on #BlackTwitter, using their ethnic and cultural background as a foundation, have allowed this meta-network to emerge at the affordances of the platform. Moreover, Clark suggests that Black Twitter allows boundaries like class, education, gender, and geography to melt away, uncovering an opportunity for a marginalized group to come together in a way they hadn’t been able to in the past.
The propagation of digital communication technologies, like Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram, has authorized a dramatic shift in the way groups can come together and create change—especially compared to other historical movements—but it hasn’t completely overtaken traditional methods like marches and protests. Social media platforms, however, have become a vehicle and an equalizer in today’s society; creating a grass-roots movement has never been easier or more effective. In fact, the Black Lives Matter movement started with a hashtag in 2013. Since then, we’ve seen people come together at an unprecedented rate through discussions and story sharing via hashtags like #MeToo, #OccupyWallStreet, #WomensMarch2018, and #NeverthelessShePersistsed (a personal favourite and shameless self-promotion: you can read a short story I wrote for a book using this hashtag here).
So, how have these online, socially driven platforms changed the way we protest? Here’s a snapshot:
They allow anyone to create a campaign easily and effectively: As long as the cause resonates with others, just about anyone in any position with access to the internet can create a conversation that could lead to real-life social change. Many well-known movements began with one voice—and one hashtag. The internet can create a global community of protesters.
Strength in numbers: As Meredith Clark discusses in Chapter 16, these platforms blur boundaries like geography, class, education, and gender allowing a greater number of people to come together for a cause. Not only that, but the metrics are quantifiable and easily identified via social media; protesters can address political leaders and say “There is X number of people behind this. You need to do something about it.”
Protesting through shopping: This is another form of protest that has become prevalent as a result of dialogue on social media. In a world driven by commercialization, brands are held responsible for their actions, practices, and in some cases their dad’s bad behaviour (see: Ivanka Trump’s clothing line).
The story remains the same, but the narrative has changed: Social media has allowed participants to become advocates by sharing their personal stories. The humanization of these causes has been a primary theme in movements like #MeToo and #WomensMarch2018. A great example of this is pop singer Halsey’s raw and powerful personal poem delivered at this year’s Women’s March in New York.
Digital First But Not Last
At the onset of what is now the Women’s March (a very hot topic this week!), Facebook quickly became the place where people of any background, gender, status, or location could get involved and coordinate sister marches in cities around the world. In an article on wired.com, Jenna Arnold, an advisor to the march, says “It would be hard to say that we would have this kind of success without an existing platform like Facebook.”
In this way, online activism and social campaigning have increased substantially, but it has in no way distracted us completely from traditional methods. In fact, research shows that social media is a tool used to coordinate in-person protests, and as a result, traditional methods are on the rise just as much as its digital counterpart.
Although there is no official count for how many men and women participated in the Women’s March 2018, some estimate between 3 and 5 million joined in-person events worldwide… Because even in a digitally-driven world, the old saying still rings true: Actions speak louder than words.
