Semicircle Mind Map

Trivializes issues

Social justice becomes a 'trend'

Gives a voice

HASHTAG ACTIVISM

Hashtag activism

Communicates a message

Sends opinions out to mass amounts of people

Strength in numbers

Offers the ability for many to join in

Can help to give minorities representation

Misinformation

Media bias and inaccuracy grows

Lack of lasting impact

False sense of involvement

A hashtag is seen as enough for change

The struggle doesn't end with a post

ActivE ACTIVISM

Active Activism

Creates a lasting impact

The objective is to employ certain groups to enact change

Personal connections

Allows for personal experiences alongside those with similar beliefs

Fueled by research

Fights for a particular action that is researched to have an effect on a cause

Spreads a message

Gathers groups together in support of one cause to enact change

Shares a voice

Allows minorities to share their perspectives

Additional time

Requires the time to go out in-person

Requires greater effort

Requires work to create things like active protests

New york times

Shares a voice

Across our history, activism has been an essential portion to democracy in providing a voice for the people. Many minorities have been able to voice their matters through active activisim, and while that is possible through social media as well, active activism means a more equal platform for all. It does not matter the money or resources that can be spent on social networking; the sight of people marching for a cause is great anough to bring their opinions to the forefront of public view.

PEW RESEARCH

Surveyed journalists on diversity in the newsroom

Gives a voice

While the newsroom aims to be unbiased at all times due to ethical code, it can be difficult to maintain such omniscience with a lack of a diversed force in the newsroom. Social media provides a space where it is not necessary to be a journalist in order to voice opinion, giving more opportunities for minorities to speak up about their own causes. The lack of experience, however, that can come with the ability for anyone to throw out their opinion on the internet remains a dangerous risk to accurate information intake.

Women's Rights Movement Map

Spreads a message

WCNT-TV

Just like hashtag activism, physical activism also gathers numbers under support of a cause; more importantly, it fosters action, something harder to ignore, that proves the message a group wants to send. The versatility of active activism means that various groups can take different courses of action in order to promote their standpoint behind the same cause, offering much more diversity than a simple repost. Consequently, the message sent is all the more meaningful and purposeful.

Miss America 'bra burning' protest

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Protests

First women's rights convention

Seneca Falls Convention

Suffrage movement

'Take back the night' protest

EARTH DAY ACTIVISM

EARTH DAY

Tweets

570,000

Creates a lasting impact

Protests

373

IMPACT

While social media can gather lots of numbers behind a cause, it cannot impact and implement policy in the way true protests can. Petitions, supported by facts and evidence and enacted by purposeful activists, work to implement accurate solutions to social justice problems. The typical curse of a short-lived social media trend of activism for a certain cause is not applicable for interest groups who dedicate their lives to equality, which is translated in their effectivity at change.

IMPACT

Fridays for Future

"The End of Nature"

Movement of the Future

WORD PRESS

Climate Change

Xiye Bastida

Bill McKibben

Personal connections

The realest danger of social media, in any sense, is the ability to hide behind a screen. Even in activism, it is possible to project support for a cause on a platform while remaining insensitive or ignorant in the real world, simlpy in an effort to come off as benevolent. Active activism means going out and protesting and petitioning, doing the hard work it takes to change the world, which takes a type of person with true dedication. Because of that, true activists can meet others dedicated to the same cause through protesting experiences, possibly working together to enact even more change.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Fueled by research

Misinformation is a dangerous side effect of hashtag activism. Oftentimes, people will repost something in support of a cause without knowing the full extent of the problem, due to a phenonomen called the "echo chamber" on social media. With an algorithm catered to personal opinion and beliefs, it can be hard to recieve unbiased information on social media to truly understand the backstory of a current event. Therefore, active activism can typically require more evidence behind your beliefs before putting in the efforts to change outcomes of policies.

Echo ChamberEffect

THE NEW YORKER

PROGRESS BAR

Hashtag activism often results in low progress for the cause after a trend dies down

Triviliazes issues

Lastly, the frugality of hashtag activism can have a damaging impact on our conception of serious topics. Sending out a tweet and signifying a stance with a social justice issue can undermine the nature of the problem, allowing someone's lifelong battle to become just another social media trend. With the perception that reposting hashtag can make a big difference, people who feel as though have contributed enough to a problem through social media can be the reason that the actual issue is never resolved

of retweets are more likely to include falsehoods than the truth.

MIT

70%

Misinformation

Perhaps one of the greatest dangers, at surface level, of hashtag activism is the tendency to click 'repost' without a second glance. In fact, on Twitter, it is found to be the most falsehoods, or inaccurate pieces of information, are the ones that spread the fastest on the platform. Due to the motivation of political groups to force their opinion onto the public, and degrade opposing opinions, escalated and innacurate recollection of events can occur frequently, spreading inaccurate informatin alongside each hashtag.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, LITTLE ROCK

Communicates a message

Hashttag activism provides a simple way to click and immediately show your position on something. With so many people on social media doing the same, hashtag activism has conveyed mass-supported messages that may not have been clear to see in physical numbers in the past. The accessibility of social media allows this message to spread across continents, so loud and far that it is impossible to be ignored.

BLM support tweets across the years

PEW RESEARCH

Lack of lasting impact

A difficult reality of hashtag activism is its basement off of algorithms and entertainment trends. Despite the effort that can be put into supporting a cause by the public, the result of spiked trends can be an a lack of lasting impact, where certain events cause a rise in public support for a short perido of time. After that 'trend' blows over, many causes can be left lost on how to conitnue their journey of justice without as much support. Resultingly, it is difficult for a cause ti have the time and supporters to make physical difference.

10/16: The day actress Alyssa Milano shared her #MeToo tweet.

Millions of tweets

university of georgia

Date

Number of #MeToo tweets per day

Strength in numbers

Because of its accessibility on social media, simply a click away from joining a movement, hashtag activism can gather large groups of people under one act of justice, furthermore identifying the issue as one of importance in the eyes of the public. The #MeToo movement is a strong representation of this, through which one hashtag by actress Alyssa Milano resulted in a spark of #MeToo tweets sharing various women's experiences with sexual harrassment.

COLORADO STATE

the activist hustle

Additional time

However, being a true activist requires a great level of commitment, steering most people away from the job. Many podcasts, such as "The Activist Hustle," dive into the laborous process that comes with being an activist, Despite this, it is possible to show support for an important cause without devoting all of your time to it. Simply attending one or two protests will allow you to be part of a movement that actually fosters change, rather than just retweeting a message, and can take as little as a few hours to be a part of.

Public view of social media (surveyed)

PEW RESEARCH

False sense of involvement

Yes, social media can be a good way of spreading awareness about an issue, especially when it is an underrepresented one in social justice causes; but in a world crippled with various levels of inequality, it is simply not enough to repost a hashtag. 'False activism,' an idea proposed by the human satisfaction that can come from speaking out social media, conveys a sense of involvement in an issue without actual working to promote better policies It is through this version of social media activism that the physical contigencies of activism are overshadowed by the thought that a social media activist is the same as an activist.

FREEDOM

FOUNTAIN HOUSE

Additional effort

The greatest positive of social media activism is simply how easy it is to show your opinion in comparison to true activism. With just one click, your voice can be shared; when it comes to physical activism, lots of planning and organization is needed, which can sometimes exhaust an activist into burnout. However, a healthy relationship with activism and the rest of your life can cause that balance to be equal: it is all simply dependent on how much activism you want to be a part of.