Political activism has taken many forms throughout American history. During the Enlightenment of the mid to late 18th Century pamphlets such as Common Sense were written to question the political status quo. In the 19th century the nation saw reform movements bringing like minded individuals together to propose solutions to the ills of society such as alcoholism and the horrendous conditions of insane asylums. Political activism moved from newspaper to radio to television media in the 20th century, reaching a greater percentage of Americans than ever before.
In the 21st century political activists can look towards social networking sites to promote their political ideals or support a charity or even urge a boycott of specific products. As someone who is currently engaged in a political struggle that I never thought that I would face so early in my life, I find myself reaching out to my social networks to save fellow public workers' jobs, save the quality of education in my state, and stop my Governor from succeeding in causing damage to my state that will only take another 20 years to undo.
On Facebook I am a fan of the page "New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze". I have been following this page as long as it has been created and have started to notice that many followers have grown frustrated after the results of the N.J. School Board elections on April 20th. There have been countless comments to the tune of, "We aren't doing anything on this page, the cuts are still happening". Why isn't this Facebook effort succeeding? Do Facebook causes or political activist groups actually accomplish anything?
The key to social networking is not just using the virtual world to get your message across. My social networks include a mix between the virtual and real world. Nearly every day since Governor Christie has been in office, I talk to my friends, my colleagues, my neighbors, and my political contacts about ways to stop the Governor from cutting funding to school districts, towns, volunteer firefighter training and volunteer EMT training. These discussions go on person to person, over the phone, through emails, through Facebook and even through this revived blog. Bottom line, if you want to make your virtual activism achieve its goals you have to take your cause into the real world because Facebook alone will not save the world.
1 comment:
You make a great point... just because people join a social network group does not mean they would be willing to actually participate in some type of activism outside of clicking on web page. In fact, the idea of facebook groups loses its luster when you notice how many people join many different groups. It might appear as false support or false hope if one were just to look at how many members a group has.
Don't get me wrong, techology absolutely helps in these situations- but the more personal the better... or maybe it's when the stakes get elevated and personal?
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