Monday, September 20, 2010
Social Network Activism
Through Facebook I have experienced several different means of social activism. Many times I have been sent petitions to sign and invitations to join groups for a certain cause. These are the two most common forms of social activism that I have experienced where I have been approached rather than me myself going to join a campaign for an issue I am concerned about. One form of social activism that I participated in that was through the internet was in 10th grade when I helped pass out fliers to help spread the awareness of autism. Other than that I usually ignore most social activist groups or petitions that are sent to me via Facebook. I have signed of few of them online through Facebook such as a petition to legalize marijuana and a petition in November of 2008 to vote no on California's Prop 8. Other than signing these online petitions I didn't follow through on any of them, except for a Save the Whales petition that I signed and then actually attended a rally. The rally was definitely enlightening, but besides listen to people and what they had to say about whale hunting, I didn't feel like I did much for the cause.
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I agree with you. I've signed many petitions and learned about other means to help a cause. I too learned more about Prop 8, learned about what I can do to legalize gay marriage. Facebook gives users a time & place to go to a protest. Although it doesn't have the same aspect of protesting, getting together and making signs with strangers. You see that 100,000 people are apart of a group that you are apart of. You see that you need to be on a certain street, at a certain time, on a certain day to protest with strangers.
ReplyDeleteI have also joined many groups to promote and signed online petitions to generate awareness for a cause through Facebook. Thousands of people join Facebook groups everyday, and they try to help support their viewpoint on a certain issue. Sometimes it comes to the point where I treat these invitations as spam e-mail because I have never heard of many of the groups I receive invitations from. Other than that, Facebook is a great resource for social activism.
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