Technology and the internet is available for many people to have access now in 2022, where you can participate and be an activist all through the use of social media. It has made modern activism a lot easier with how well built our technology and internet is. “Media are central to the dynamics of protest and social movements. Contemporary social movements face a shifting environment composed of new media technologies and platforms that enable new identities, organizational forms, and practices” (Caren, Andrews, and Lu, 2020). Sharing information on social media is one of the most efficient and effective ways to get the message out there. Especially if it’s a huge incident, social media will be covered with all of it. Technology and the internet has made modern activism ten or maybe even more times easier and better.
Technology and the internet are seen as “tools help us build a different type of community. And I think that we have to be open to new ways of organizing and new ways of building community” (McKesson, 2016). We have to use technology and the internet in a positive way and spread out this positivity to cancel out the negativity. There are people who don’t use technology and the internet for the good of it, they do the opposite. Modern problems require modern solutions and as McKesson said, we need to use these tools to help us build and organize communities. Although, we need to take into consideration that not everyone sees eye to eye on things. Which people will need to best use their technology and internet to find the community that best fits them.
With the use of these tools, we have seen so many positive things come out from it through modern activism. As an Asian American, the one moment that I think of when thinking of modern activism was the violence towards Asians during the pandemic. Videos and posts were all over social media with the hashtag of #ProtectAsianLives. The message was spread through all social media fast, efficiently, and effectively. It’s all thanks to the technology and internet we have nowadays that allows us to do that. As we have seen throughout the past few years during the pandemic, technology and the internet has made modern activism a lot better and easier for everyone.
Work Cited:
Caren, N., Andrews, K. T., & Lu, T. (n.d.). Contemporary social movements in a hybrid media environment. Annual Reviews. April 29, 2020, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054627?casa_token=pn45brIhS7QAAAAA%3AYUS2W6Zf8FzRIrcVSxsFoX4MNXSWJgS53ESzcNZ8seb_y7vuzQarpZtiKhpWOSJzQsiBS7w9Lha-gtg
Mckesson, D. [The Verge]. (2016, Nov 29). DeRay Mckesson on digital activism and Black Lives Matter. https://youtu.be/z_JwQpKlWZ8
