This was not actually one of my friends' posts but it is pretty entertaining...
I scrolled down my entire newsfeed reading all the updates and then I fact checked on Google news until I found a legitimate enough web source (Washington Post) for me to feel confident telling my host mom the news. When I did, she ran and turned on the TV and low and behold the Spaniards were chattin' up a storm about it.
Every celebrity death, every major news event, and every earthquake-- I find out about via Facebook. Facebook is inevitably a source of information that is fast and easy. While most of my friends' status updates have more to do with what they ate for breakfast than what is happening around the world, it is extremely important to realize the impact Facebook, and all social media, is having on the world.
While Malcolm Gladwell would like for us to believe social media "makes it easier for social activists to express themselves and harder for that expression to have any impact", I think we are seeing a clear impact with the Occupy Movement. The combination of technology and globalization has lead to the movements popping up around the world. People are not just tweeting about it, not just updating their Facebooks about it, but they are camping out in the HUB to #OccupyPennState or planning events outside London to #OccupyEngland. This use of technology to inspire and promote the fight for global democracy. While Morozov believes that social media leads to Slacktivism, in this case, he is and Gladwell are both wrong. In this case, social media has been the outlet used to organize, inspire and create an actual, physical movement. And thanks to technology and the interconnectedness of our world today, that movement is spreading like wildfire.
When one protesting idea gains enough popularity that it is repeated in over a thousand cities around the world, and when it gains enough popularity that President Obama talked about it, you know that that was an impactful idea. After Arab Spring and the "revolution" in Iran, it is apparent that social media is having a bigger and bigger effect on our nation. The #Occupy movement is just one more push toward using social media to implement and promote real-life ideas.
Dani,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your discussion that online social media tools have become important elements of everyday life. They are key in spreading news, promoting ideas, and gaining momentum and support for certain movements. However, I disagree with your statement that Facebook and similar tools, such as Twitter, will allow Occupy Wall Street (OWS) “to implement and promote real-life ideas.”
It cannot be debated that the Occupy movements have garnered such widespread, global support as the result of Facebook, Twitter, and Livestream. The ease of technology and the interconnectedness of individuals throughout the world have allowed ideas to spread faster than ever before. Online social media can be thanked for increasing the number of supporters in NYC and for creating international Occupy Wall Street satellite protests.
Nonetheless, the powers of online social media stop there. Facebook can promote real-life ideas, but it cannot implement them. Morozov and Gladwell are correct in believing that online social media tools do not generate high impact. What tangible impact has Occupy Wall Street had so far? Yes, they have brought awareness to a myriad of issues, such as unemployment, housing, debt, Wall Street corruption, etc. But, what solutions have been proposed and/or implemented to fix these problems?
Occupy Wall Street may be basking in the limelight on Facebook, Twitter, and the nightly news. But, are the grievances expressed by this movement being addressed by the government? By Wall Street itself? It doesn’t seem that significant attention is being given to this issue by policy leaders and Wall Street bankers. Unfortunately, more “Likes” and members on Facebook Occupy Wall Street groups won’t persuade the political and economic leaders to focus on the Occupy movements’ demands. Rather, a coherent list of a few practical goals and policy briefs on how to implement them and a small group of leaders that represent the movement will allow OWS to have a strong voice that may possibly implement real-life ideas.
People have every right to support causes and express their frustrations via online social media. However, it is a fallacy for them to believe that Facebook alone is an omnipotent tool that can solve complex, longstanding political, social, and economic issues.
Dani,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Facebook and Twitter and other social media outlets have played an enormous role in the Occupy Wall Street protests. The massive amounts of people involved in these movements is due in large part to the "spread like wildfire" effect that this movement has had on social media sites. However, I would not consider this movement a success and I think that this has to do with Facebook and Twitter. There is no denying the fact that Facebook and Twitter have played a large role in these protests, but I do not know how good of a role it has played.
Facebook and Twitter have been used in these movements to organize large numbers of people, but I think that they have actually disorganized a large number of people. Social networking ahs brought a great deal of people together, but not everyone is on the same page about what they are fighting for. As I mention in my blog, there are people at these protests that are not there for the right reasons (some do not even know why they are there at all). This is an example of how Facebook has made this a popular event for people to join, but that does not mean that people are there for the right reasons. I thik that social networking has brought significant attention to this issue, but it has lead to a greater amount of disorganization in terms of how these protests are being conducted and the message that the protestors are trying to send.
Until the Occupy movements become more organized and have defined leadership and goals in place, they will not have an effect. And I do not think that social networking will contribute in getting this moevement any more organized. In fact, it may actually increase the chaos surrounding these movements.
I tend to agree with some of your assessments regarding the use of social media to promote the Occupy Wall Street Movement across the globe. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been influential in getting people off the couch and actually protesting. Once people saw their friends, "occupying" it suddenly became the cool thing to do. Once they determined that it was cool, they all wanted to be out there doing the "cool" thing.
ReplyDeleteThese Social media sites have also been influential in helping to keep these movements going despite government obstructions. In multiple locations, the police have announced that they were going to shut down an "occupy" protest site for various reason. The protestors drove to these social media sites to announcing these police attempts at shutting down the protests. This caused a wide range of online support from those around the world who actively worked to prevent these locations from closing. The government officials in those locations responded to the outpouring of activism and decided not to kick the protestors out.
Even though Social Networking has done a lot to promote this movement, it has actually harmed it in some circumstances. One of the criticisms of the movement is the lack of actual goals by the movement. Over the course of a month, I have seen at least 50 goals that have claimed to be the official goals of the movement. While I agreed with some of the goals, some of them were so crazy I lost interest in the movement as a whole. The protests are so decentralized and lacking in leadership that they have not been able to promote a single goal amongst the entire movement. It is unlikely that they will be able to create a single movement until a central leadership is developed. I do not foresee that happening anytime in the near future as long as this movement remains a "Social Networking Movement."