DTC 101 – Spring 2013

I realize I am late to the social party, but I usually am.  You might have notice that many of your friends on Facebook have replaced their profile photo with the equal sign, as a way to show support for gay marriage.  Showing your support for a cause is nothing new to Facebook, but are you really doing anything simply by changing your Facebook photo?  What social change are you really bringing about?  Susan Kohn had a most apt point when she said “Internet activism is individualistic.  It’s great for a sense of interconnectedness  but the Internet does not bind individuals in shared struggle the same as the the face-to-face activism of the 1960s and 70s did.  It allows us to channel our individual power for good, but it stops there… real challenges in our society… won’t politely go away with a few clicks of the mouse.”  Social media can bring about change, but there needs to be organization, and real action behind it. Swapping a photo, or signing an online petition is often meaningless, because there is little effort behind it.  Whereas when the Arab Spring burned through Egypt they used it to organize, and mobilize the opposition to the streets.  Even when the police tried to clamp down on the opposition they had no idea even how to go about it.  This media was new to them, and efforts at intimidation only backfired.  When organizers were beaten they uploaded their wounds to Facebook and Twitter, when the police beat protesters, they had their phones out to capture it and put in online.  This is the new social activism, and the way social media can help the world.

ColleenBurke85

@RachaelS_DTC

Deanna Zandt reveals that social media effects society in a few different ways. The greatest example she gives is the uprising in the Middle East and North Africa. She says that social media “propels ideas of resistance and mass defiance across the Middle East and North Africa (pg. 3).” Social media, such as Facebook and Youtube, connected people around the world to show brutality in many countries. This is crucial when people are seeking for a social change. Unity in ideas also aids in dispersing information that people can easily access to begin a social movement. The Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s and 60’s did not have the internet but they still used the media through news reports to gain supporters. The media was a crucial aspect in the power of both of these movements. This is because media is available to almost everyone and the information can be presented in a way that gains supporters. For example, world hunger is a social problem that nearly everyone agrees exists. To raise money for starving children, activists can set up a website with images and videos of people dying from starvation. These images and videos can also be shared to other supporters around the world. Images and video with strong emotional quality tend to gain more attention for a social problem. Zandt also emphasizes the unity in social media, which also gains power for social change. On the internet, people are connected and can share information and evidence for social change.

@chrisdtc101

Deanna Zandt gives us two quotes that sum up why social media is so powerful today. First, she says that, “Storytelling has been the most powerful building block for social change” (1). Later on in her book, “Share This! How You Will Change The World With Social Networking”, she claims, “Social networking gives us unprecedented power to share our stories with more people than we ever imagined” (159). Social media can mobilize people because it is easily available to anyone with internet access, and because it is far easier to reach out to masses of people through social media than in the real world. It has given us greater connection to the rest of the world than ever before. No longer are we limited to sharing our stories and looking for change from just the small number of people we see face to face, but now I can post something online, and people from Japan or China can see it just as easily as people living down the street from me. Not only do we have access to more people, but we, as participants of this social media movement, have access to more stories than ever before as well.

Social media has mobilized us by simply giving us a place to share our stories and interact. Facebook, where we can share anything we want and voice our thoughts and opinions, is one of the most popular places for this social media movement. Even right now, as we write our blog posts for this class, we are taking part in the social media movement. Social media has made itself nearly inescapable these days. It is everywhere we look. For anyone who uses the internet, social media is a part of their lives. Social media gives us a place to interact, and that’s all we need to get started.

The characteristics and qualities of the social media movement include connectivity, which contains a broad range of other characteristics such as being available to large numbers of people, being easily available, allowing people to contact each other at any given moment, and allowing people to converse even if they are not face to face. Characteristics also include the ability for the movement to easily adapt to changes and new technology and the inclusion of new popular technologies like personal blogs, Google+, and smartphones.

When we look back in history, we see that some of the greatest social changes were brought about by stories. Many times it was done through novels, short stories or even film. Zandt even proposes that, “storytelling has been the most powerful building block for social change”(1). But now we have been given a new medium through which to tell our story and that medium is social media. According to Zandt, “social networking gives us unprecedented power to share our stories” (1). We have seen this truth occur over and over again. What once took getting published in a newspaper or a novel to have your ideas seen by the masses now can be done instantly through social networking. Social media offers many advantages over previous media when it comes to sharing stories. The first advantage social media has is accessibility. A blog or a Facebook group can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection which latest statistics show to be about 2.4 billion people. Even the most popular and world changing stories in the past could never be available to this many people. Social media also groups people by their interests making them more engaged in whatever story is being told. There are an endless variety of forums and groups that all specialize in a different idea or activity. So instead of only getting ideas by means of publishing houses, newspapers, or what the small amount of people we know told us, we can now go and seek out our own information and stories that perfectly match up with our interests. This is great because when people hear an idea by means of a story they like, they are more likely to actually do something to promote it. Finally, social media is a much better way of spreading a message because most of the time social networking is free to the reader, making them much more likely to read the story than if they would have had to pay money to see it.

Social networking is what we are today. Social networking is where you can do anything good or bad at your fingertips. “Social networking gives us unprecedented power to share our stories with more people we ever imagined.” (Zandt, 159) Social media has grown so much over the years. For myself it used to be all about MySpace, changing the HTML codes to have the coolest background, and having the newest songs on your playlist. Now it’s all about blogging and Facebook. Some people blog to tell their stories, whether they want a response back, to let others know they’re not alone in a situation or just to simply talk about what they think, and have seen. For Facebook, it’s everything. People vent, update their statuses on the weather create groups for clubs and activities. Some even send out invitations via Facebook rather than sending a card. When reading this weekly prompt, I instantly thought of how this is so true, especially with the new thing being where kids, grownups are holding a sign saying “like this and we will get a puppy” Or “If you like and Share this picture we will donate a dollar to this charity” The one I’ve seen the latest is where a man in a seems to be 30’s is holding up a sign asking if anyone knows his real parents, I personally couldn’t help but share this because I’m hoping that this story is true and not some way of becoming  famous over Facebook.