My name is Bond Longley and I am a senior at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. For my blog I will be analyzing social media in political, social and cultural movements, especially in relation to current events such as the Occupy Wall Street movement. I have been researching this topic for my senior project since last spring in my Global Studies research methods course where I discovered the topic of social media as digitally fueled activism. At this point, countries such as Egypt, Iran and Syria were facing serious political and social issues so it seemed appropriate to analyze the social network that is accredited for stimulating these revolutions.
So what is social media? In a basic sense it is any form of web-based or mobile technology that allows users to share information. If you’re reading this blog than you’re using social media right now! However, most people when they hear the term social media, they refer to the big game changers: Facebook andTwitter. Although these forms of social medias are relatively new phenomena’s, it is apparent that they are quickly integrating themselves into our daily lives. I, like most of the people I know using these tools, originally joined Facebook and Twitter to stay in contact with friends and family. It is now seven years later and I have discovered that these forms of social media not only allow people to communicate, but also hold the ability to motivate political and social movements.
Although I preach social media as a motivator for change in political and social movements, what kind of change it will lead to is subjective. It seems that many westernized view points advocate for the use of technology to facilitate democracy and liberation, while the viewpoint of critics from the developing world suggest that this innate power from social media can lead to disruptive change. I intend on addressing all of these perspectives as well as the ones in between in my analysis of this topic.
So you might be asking yourself, why should I care? It is undeniable that social media is becoming a considerable tool for communication, but the forms of communication could be limitless. Social media is quickly proving to be a tool for organizing groups of people around the world and influencing how they share cultural, social and political information. Social media is even opening up a new job market in which companies are hiring individuals to update their different forms of social media regularly. Lastly, it is affecting our every day lives. There are consequences for the ability to instantaneously share information for all social, political and cultural groups. This blog intends on exploring these consequences and relating it to today’s current events and the everyday lives of the people using it. It is apparent that social media like Facebook and Twitter are no longer just the playthings of college students.
(courtesy of Google Images)