Chances are you have an account with at least one of these social media sites, if not more. Social media is taking over as the main way we communicate with not only our friends, but with people we've never met. It has expanded the channels of communication by inviting non-exclusiveness, anonymity, and interaction for people who would never had the opportunity to talk or share content with before. YouTube has it's own 'celebrity' vloggers and entertainers. People find their news on Twitter. Facebook allows interaction with businesses. Social networking and websites has become so dominant in our culture that it's even integrating into our everyday discourse. It's an important movement to recognize because of its mass increase in traffic and volume each and everyday.
According to the YouTube video "The Social Media Revolution 2012," the number of people on Facebook would make it 3rd place for highest populated country, winning over the United States. Having this many people from so many different places and so many different demographics allows for a much more open discourse and accessibility to others. I remember initially hearing about the Occupy Movement through Facebook and Reddit before ever hearing about it on the news. People would post Occupy forums on Reddit encouraging other people to Occupy their cities and share tactics, signs, photos, etc. Having the tool of social media to communicate to people you'd otherwise not be able to speak to allows for information to travel fast. It's difficult for government to regulate it and keep up with what is being posted. This explanation goes along well with Malcolm Gladwell's article titled "Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted" which explains how social movement nowadays is accelerated and amplified compared to pre-internet days. For example with the equality movement for blacks back in the 1960s used a body rhetoric tactic for social movement by sitting in places they were not allowed to be at the time due to segregation. The way word got around for doing this was through telling people about it, but it was mainly localized due to the limited access to spreading the word elsewhere. The difference now is with social media the limitations are minimal and the information is fast.
Social media can induce social change with viral force. An example of this is the Kony 2012 video. If you haven't heard of it before, the Kony 2012 movement was started by a man named Jason Russell highlighting the children being mistreated and put to war by a man named Kony in Africa. The video was 30 minutes long and had an immense amount of Pathos being used to invoke an emotional response to donate money to Invisible Children to help the kids in Africa featured in the video. I remember being on Facebook and all the sudden seeing at least 30 posts by Facebook friends linking the Kony 2012 youtube video and telling everyone they "HAD" to watch it. The video is extremely well done and definitely invites participation and initiation of a social movement through it's well formulated organization and content. The controversy was its legitimacy due to rumors about Invisible Children not using all the donation money for the movement to save the children under Kony's reign. Another issue was the supposedly 'dated' information about Kony and his whereabouts, because according to some sources Kony had already been arrested. I found out all of this information through social media - not necessarily my friends posting the information themselves, but them sharing links of sites telling this information. Without social media, I don't know how much I would have found on my own.
It's amazing being a part of this millennium social media uprising that my generation is so engulfed in. Having these socials tools is what I've known and become so used to since I was 13-14 years old and first had dial up internet and AOL Instant Messenger. My involvement with online social networking only snowballed from that point and has definitely integrated itself into my daily routine. The majority of my news comes from posts on Facebook or Reddit and it's a rare day when I have to google something to find out what it is all about, since information is so quickly posted and explained on social media sites. Social media and social change are intensely connected and will continue to be due to the fast growth of the online population. This is not just a fad, like the video questions, it is most certainly a solid revolution.
Sources:
Gladwell, Malcolm. "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted." The New Yorker. 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell.
Kony 2012. Dir. Jason Russell. 2012. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Ngak, Chenda. "Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" Viral Video Stirs Emotion and Controversy." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57393346-501465/invisible-childrens-kony-2012-viral-video-stirs-emotion-and-controversy
The Social Media Revolution 2012. 2012. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs
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