Social media and activism

I feel that social media has brought activism and political movements into popular culture. What does this mean for the world though? I mean with popularity comes the good and bad. For every person who stepped foot at an occupy protest is three other people who claim to be “activists” because they post on facebook about one subject or another without contributing anything to the real world. I am no hero I stand on my soapbox quite a bit if a subject comes up but I am not going to blog about it if I am not there.

While we are on the subject though Occupy Wall Street has now become the poster child for the modern online activist revolution. What started as a single protest started by Kalle Lasn and Micah White of Adbusters in New York City soon became a world wild protest. After the economic collapse of 2008 many people disenfranchised took aim at the banks and corporations for their own individual reasons and I have to admit I didn’t think it would work. After seeing pictures of protesters on television and seeing pictures in the newspapers I started reading blogs, even watching live streams of it as it was happening. During this time I heard of another online revolution WikiLeaks allowed whistle-blowers to leak classified government documents. The internet has opened up the world many sites like this making the political landscape a lot smaller place.

There are many ways you can help change the world by making small donations online. Sites like Kiva.org that provides microloans for people and families in less fortunate countries. Also a of more recognizable organizatios like UNICEF have made donation available on their websites. So what are you waiting for? Help make a difference.

 

Citizen Journalism

                 What is Citizen Journalism? And what kind of affect has the internet had on it? Citizen journalism can be defined as journalism that has been provided by ordinary citizens. The internet has had a profound effect on citizen journalism from blogs and vlogs to entire sites dedicated to any topic you wish all written by normal people.  I regularly watch news channels on youtube such as The Young Turks (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks) that report and discuss topics some news channels don’t or won’t cover, also pointing out flaws in mainstream broadcasts.

Why should I care about citizen journalism? Why shouldn’t I care about citizen journalism?  In a world where mainstream media such as FOX News and CNN has turned to opinion for ratings(and whatever other underlying reasons)  rather than reporting facts has made  many people turn to alternative  sources. I feel as though citizen journalism has come to the forefront recently for many reasons first being lied to by The United States lying about their reasons for going to war for the better part of a decade and the financial collapse in 2008 have cause a wide spread distrust in large governments and larger cooperation and the news media they control. Citizen journalism online has become the voice of a new generation whether it be the youtube videos, pod cast and, live streams of the occupy movement, to cell phone videos capturing crocked cops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lP-1Wti3Vs) the internet is now to our society what the printing press was to the French to help free there people from the chains of a cruel monarchy.

What are the some of the problems in citizen journalism? Well first off you don’t have to do any fact checking and you don’t have the money for a lot of that if you’re working independently as a citizen journalist. A great example of this would be the movie zeitgeist a documentary outlining the problems with American society. It was found after some research that the creator Peter Joseph (while citing his sources) distorted some the facts for his own benefit. Just because you’re a journalist doesn’t mean you’re a good one if you are going to depend on this kind of media check for yourself.

Overall I believe that citizen journalism has helped our society over the past decade to undercover some rotten truths and the internet provided a voice for everyone who wishes to make there opion known. So keep blogging and vlogging so the world will become a better place.

My Social Media Diet

     This last Monday and Tuesday I subjected myself to a two day social media diet. No facebook no youtube no nothing. This was a huge step for me as an IT student. The diet called for no web browsing which in my case was just not possible because I’m taking two online courses right now. My plan to avoid social media was simple keep myself busy by doing homework and helping a local kid record a song for college application. Although this seemed an easy task, I found myself on youtube watching videos for my social media class. I wasn’t quite sure if instant messaging was part of y diet or not since my girlfriend lives out of town I spent a lot of time talking to her on BBM and had a video call with her on skype.  I avoided facebook(where I usually spend a lot of time looking at stupid pictures) and youtube(where I usually watch most of my TV) by playing videogames offline.  Overall I think I could function quite well without most social media by using conventional means telephone text messages and books. Well I normally rely on youtube for recording tutorials for my recording I could easily buy a book on the subject (but what’s the fun in that) luckily it didn’t come to that.  Although social media does make my life quite abit easier when it comes to my social life so far it does not affect my professional life quite yet. But I do feel I should abstain from facebook and youtube quite bit more than I do.  

Is Social Media Just A Fad???

Personally I believe social media has become a permanent fixture in our society. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last ten years you’ve been introduced used some form of social media. I was first introduced to social media in the year 2000 my girlfriend was writing a blog about the troubles of being a teenage girl, in its infancy social media didn’t seem much more than that to me. Fast forward two years I’m at a local rock show all of these bands keep telling us to go to their “myspaces”. After being informed of what this was from a friend I was hooked my band started being messaged by people wanting me to play shows everywhere. Myspace.com after a while had become a huge outlet for independent music and the music industry alike many new bands were signed due there success on social media, independent bands were able to start making contacts thru this new outlet a far cry from the phone number list network of the early 90’s. Although myspace gets little credit these days without it I don’t’ think facebook would be what it is today I remember in the summer of 2006 so I took a look at it. I scoffed at it “it’s just myspace with more pictures. And I can’t upload my music”. Another thing that got me about facebook was it was so restrictive you couldn’t find anyone cause you couldn’t see there profile unless you were friends with them I thought it was going to fail…despite my arrogance I kept with It. Today facebook is the world’s largest social media with claims of  1 billion users worldwide, becoming a central hub to most other social media outlets such as twitter, linkedin, and redit just to name a few.

Things have come a long way from making your own site on geocities.com and having a live journal. When it’s all said and done do I think social media is something that is a fad or is it something that that is going to stay?  I think the answer is yes. In a world where technology is always changing social media will always have its place it has opened doors political and socially for many people. Social media is something that has changed that course of technology cell phones and tablets are being designed to accommodate it. Some people could not function these days without the use of social media.