Do Social Networking Sites Have a Role to Play in Social Activism?

When social media was in its nascent stage it was only meant to share simple messages and emails with the people one wanted to. The idea of a community-based sharing of information anywhere including the Indian social networking sites was unknown. But then that all changed with Orkut, Facebook and other global sites.

 

Fast forward to 2011 and it was the first time that social media site was held paramount in the revolution in a state (Egypt) full of turmoil. So, the big question now is whether social networking sites really have a role to play in this era of social activism? The following are some points that can help clear out this picture

 

Social Activism – Cyber Activism

 

·         While the concept of social activism is not new, it had traditionally been thought to have been the tool in the hands of only some sections of the society. However, the internet is still a fairly open and accessible technology for anyone. It cuts across all barriers of class and other divisions in the society

 

·         The challenging of social injustices or achieving communal goals has led to a new kind of activism develop online vis a visCyber Activism

 

Sharing Extensively

 

·         To be a social activist means to;

a. Connect, b. Share, and, c. Empower, the people in the society.It also means to communicate with the stakeholders for behavioral change among the masses and share information plans to overall improve the standard of living

 

·         In this aspect, social sites play a great role in letting people know of an issue. Also, being extremely low-cost, social media has a great advantage to share quality image or video content along or mp3 free music with a clever message so that it goes viral

 

But not everything is fine in this area. Some observers in this field have raised questions about the commitment and the efficacy of Cyber activism as compared to traditional way of face-to-face efforts.

 

The Challenge

 

·         Many skeptics of this new form of activism have labeled it as ‘’lazy’’ and ‘’less-passionate’’ by a section of ‘’less-dedicated citizens’’. They believe that simply asking people to ‘’like’’ or ‘’hashtag’’ a topic is not enough

·         Another challenge comes from ‘’trolling’’ on the internet. This trolling is done usually by individuals or an organized syndicate backed by the state itself to hijack a particular cause. This also a sign of some governments waking up to the force of the internet technology.

 

To wrap things up, it can be said that despite some challenges from within, Indian social networking sites have written a new definition of awareness and social robustness. The need is now to strike a balance between the traditional way and this new way of activism.

 

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Source : https://storify.com/anjelannu9/do-social-networking-sites-have-a-role-to-play-in-