Social media platforms are meant to deliver instant results - whether it is getting likes on your Instagram picture of your lunch or a Facebook status update about your new relationship. These platforms feed into the selfish nature of instant gratification. Short term satisfaction isn’t the only reward social media provides. Over the last years, social media has evolved into a platform to raise and spread awareness about global issues.
The use of social media as a platform of true communication has become a tool for the public to get their voices heard. Media such as twitter and Facebook have been in use from the events of the Arab Spring to the recent incident of Ferguson, Missouri. The raw encounters of people in these tense situations have been virally spread online, bringing the action to the front doors of people worldwide.
Social media has worked to highlight discrepancies that exist in traditional news outlets while delivering information to the general public. With the use of media platforms like twitter and Facebook, the events are seen unfiltered. In a recent interview on Yahoo! news, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey discusses the role of social media in Ferguson by saying that, "you can just simply get out your phone wherever you are, and you can add to the conversation, you can read the conversations and you can contribute, and that was something that we always wanted to empower more. And fortunately the world wants the same thing (Shapiro).”
With the help of social media, the average person has also been able to get their opinions out. Traditional news outlets usually rely on professionals to analyze events and deliver insight about sensitive situations going on in the world. However, armed with social media, students like me have been sharing their opinions and providing different facets to one story. Trends like #iftheygunnedmedown have been a popular tool for students to express their feelings towards the negative portrayal of Michael Brown in the news after his shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. Other hashtags are also in place to create a following for current events and create a population that is much more aware.
The events of Ferguson has caused an immense response on social media and these very responses have been the fuel towards demilitarizing the police and holding them accountable for their actions. The public of Ferguson have been using their social media platforms to document events unfolding in their community and are pushing towards creating a rule where officers have to wear cameras on duty. This helps in diminishing police violence upon civilians and creates an accessible way for the public to see what their law enforcement officials are doing. These ideas which have been brought forth through the use of social media can work towards creating a future where there is trust among the general public and the people who are supposed to protect them.
Although the “traditional” use of social media has been to reconnect with people from our past, the roles of these outlets has evolved from something so mundane. Nowadays, the public have been using these platforms as a way to express their opinions of current events and bring forth to light what they perceive. This much intimate version of current events gives a new facet towards observing and understanding information in a world that is changing constantly.
The use of social media as a platform of true communication has become a tool for the public to get their voices heard. Media such as twitter and Facebook have been in use from the events of the Arab Spring to the recent incident of Ferguson, Missouri. The raw encounters of people in these tense situations have been virally spread online, bringing the action to the front doors of people worldwide.
Social media has worked to highlight discrepancies that exist in traditional news outlets while delivering information to the general public. With the use of media platforms like twitter and Facebook, the events are seen unfiltered. In a recent interview on Yahoo! news, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey discusses the role of social media in Ferguson by saying that, "you can just simply get out your phone wherever you are, and you can add to the conversation, you can read the conversations and you can contribute, and that was something that we always wanted to empower more. And fortunately the world wants the same thing (Shapiro).”
With the help of social media, the average person has also been able to get their opinions out. Traditional news outlets usually rely on professionals to analyze events and deliver insight about sensitive situations going on in the world. However, armed with social media, students like me have been sharing their opinions and providing different facets to one story. Trends like #iftheygunnedmedown have been a popular tool for students to express their feelings towards the negative portrayal of Michael Brown in the news after his shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. Other hashtags are also in place to create a following for current events and create a population that is much more aware.
The events of Ferguson has caused an immense response on social media and these very responses have been the fuel towards demilitarizing the police and holding them accountable for their actions. The public of Ferguson have been using their social media platforms to document events unfolding in their community and are pushing towards creating a rule where officers have to wear cameras on duty. This helps in diminishing police violence upon civilians and creates an accessible way for the public to see what their law enforcement officials are doing. These ideas which have been brought forth through the use of social media can work towards creating a future where there is trust among the general public and the people who are supposed to protect them.
Although the “traditional” use of social media has been to reconnect with people from our past, the roles of these outlets has evolved from something so mundane. Nowadays, the public have been using these platforms as a way to express their opinions of current events and bring forth to light what they perceive. This much intimate version of current events gives a new facet towards observing and understanding information in a world that is changing constantly.
Source:
Shapiro, Stephen. "Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey on Social Media's Role in Ferguson." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!.Web. 28 Aug. 2014.
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