Social media activism, delegitimizes social justice movements

Since the rise of the Facebook, a new wave of protesting has begun. People can post a single image and their message is spread to countless others across the world. This has allowed for large-scale movements and protesting that actually affect corrupt policy.

But with such a spread of people, the message can get warped by individuals. Often after a mass demonstration, protesters flock to their social media to post about their activism and #wokeness. Some of these posts further the message of the protest, and spread the message to those who were previously unware. But others use these protests for real change as an opportunity to make it about themselves with little relation to the purpose of the protest.

It is these posts that trivialize these movements of change. These pictures, tweets, and status updates shift focus onto the individuals. While these self-centered posts seem to have little impact on larger movements, it can slow the progress of the movement.

These posts also make serious movements much easier to poke fun at and criticize. When the members of a protest divulge from the cause, it opens itself up to memes and ridicule. With a quick search of #blacklivesmatter on Instagram, nearly three quarters of the posts under “Top” are memes or criticism of the movement. With a switch to the “Recent”, nearly all of the posts are images of individual protestors with signs, but captions that have little relevance to the topic.

To have more meaningful protests, protestors need to take the vanity out of their posts and support the cause, not their like count. This will lead to more effective protests that create change.