Week 11 – “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” Summary

            Decades ago, activism was accomplished in person. When Americans fought for racial equality, their protests had to be physical, and thus included a large element of risk. A group of four African-American college students started a sit-in protest at a local bar that refused to serve them, simply due to their skin color. Such a protest could be met with violence, and the four students put their lives on the line with this rebellion. They were lucky that no harm befell them, and that their methodology quickly spread across the immediate area, and then the state.

            Today, with modern social media like Facebook and Twitter, activism has taken a different turn. For many political events occurring worldwide, there is frequently a corresponding explosion on Twitter. For instance, when students protested in Iran, the government wanted to keep Twitter running smoothly so that the students could “feel empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy.” Yet many people fail to realize that the Twitter revolution is not worldwide, and certainly has not struck Iran. The vast majority of people tweeting about the events in Iran were American, which does nothing to help the protests in Iran. Americans seem to think that participating in an event by tweeting will have a profound impact, but it actually has little effect, especially for events occurring elsewhere in the world.

            With online social media, people tend to prefer passive participation when it comes to activism. It’d be easy for me like a Facebook page or write a tweet about how I’m thinking about those in trouble because there is no risk to me. I am not putting my life on the line to help in a movement for change. The four students who sat at the bar could easily have been physically beaten, arrested, or killed. Challenging the status quo is not a task for those who are not willing to take major risks. Motivating people to get involved in such dangerous work is achieved through personal interactions. People join a movement because their friends are in the movement. The four students were all close friends, and could only protest at the bar with the support of each other. Social websites usually connect people weakly, and fail to create the close bond that motivates people to join their friends in activism.

            Social websites do have their uses, particularly for popularizing an issue. For instance, when Clay Shirky lost his cell phone and the person who picked it up refused to give it back, Shirky posted the issue online. Random people who saw the post managed to track down the stealer and generated enough publicity to force the police to get involved. Nonetheless, while social websites can be successful in situations like these, they are not very effective at countering deep-set issues. In-person activism still remains the most effective method in this case.