The world consists of more than 6 billion people across the continents and hemispheres that suffer from the extreme struggles such as homelessness, to the unthinkable wealth that many of us can only dream about. With that, there comes every persons opinion for what they believe is right and what should be forbidden. In the 1960s, when the hippie revolution came about, thousands of protestors would march the streets and challenge the government for freedom and peace. Their long locks and rebellious actions, against a pro-war government and closed-minded society of judgmental and conforming citizens, would be seen singing together about love, not war, carrying the signs and banners with a message to spread as far as they can across the world.
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| (http://www.boomerslife.org/protests_rally_iran_neda_agha_soltan.htm) |
It's great to see that people still have a passion to fight for rights and have petitions against the immoral propositions that are likely to move ahead (like fighting for the legalisation of gay marriage and protesting against animal cruelty to name a few). Although many of the traditional techniques of protesting and activism continues in the current time, the use of social media and technology has increasingly helped the ways in which we can all take part in fighting for a cause. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, you name it, we can do it.
It's a new world of digital activism where one can make a Facebook page and share it to the cyber world to get 'likes' and raise awareness of the issues that are actively persuading on the world to make a change. We find that on Twitter, people displaying an example of digital activism by hash-tagging their cause, such as #PrayForBoston after the unfortunate bombing in Boston on the 16/04/13, during the city's marathon as a memory of the 1 year anniversary to the Boston massacre.
The beauty of digital activism is that it helps raise global awareness with the possibility of rapid effects. People posting photos, videos and petitions about what is going on in their part of the world and how it effects their life (whether it be for educational, economical or environmental reasons), can be spread to us and we can all help by signing their petition and spreading their cause, no matter how big or small. Lets take Kony 2012 for example. Do we all remember the campaign that was release on YouTube and shared across social media websites to make the world aware of the kidnapping head of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Rao Kony? As soon as that video hit the online community, it went viral across the world within 48 hours, and we even saw celebrities playing as activists to find Kony. Straight away, everywhere you looked in the streets, you'd see signs and graffiti saying 'Kony 2012'. The link below is a clip that shows what the Kony 2012 campaign was used for.
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| (http://dayumn.com/2012/03/should-we-be-critical-of-kony/) |
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| (http://cmcforum.com/opinion/03092012-defending-the-kony-2012-campaign) |
One of the most successful examples of digital activism is change.org. Change.org is a website that enables digital petitions online that any person with a cause can start up and run their own petition throughout the world wide web, by sharing their cause and the link on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and anything else that you can think of online. Change.org has an outstanding 13 million registered users signing into the website and signing petitions and taking part in activism.
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| (http://www.change.org/en-AU) |
In the end, I think that it's great that we can all take part in making a positive difference in our world through the possibilities of digital activism.
What are your thoughts?
Is digital activism opening a new world of opportunities, or is it opening windows to more problems and disagreements?
Have your say.
I think Digital Activism opens so many opportunities in giving a voice to issues. It's a great resources, although it does encourage our lazy generation.
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