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Sarkeesian Illustrates Two Negative Effects Of Social Media On Women

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Prior to the creation of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr , communicating an idea to large numbers of people was slow and limited. What options did exist were flawed: newspapers edit and monitor the editorials they choose to publish, and social mobilization requires phone calls and handwriting letters-- a time consuming and labor intensive task. Social Media replaces editorials with blog posts that cannot be censored, and Facebook groups with the time and location of protests, replace slow and expensive phone campaigns. Furthermore, the internet allows people around the world to discuss current events in real time.

For example: In 2014, after feeling shafted when multiple women turned down his romantic and sexual advances, …show more content…

Just as the internet provides a quick way for social movements to mobilize it allowed Sarkeesian’s detractors to find each other . Without the internet, the response to her lecture at USU would never have been so severe, and she likely wouldn’t have had to cancel her lecture. The second effect is, in my opinion, worse. By providing a way for anti-feminsts to publicly voice their opinions, Social Media has made speaking out against sexism dangerous, and the dangers painfully apparent. This can potentially scare off young women from voicing their opinion for fear that they will be harassed in a way similar to …show more content…

Protests are now easier than ever to both plan and attract supporters. Connie Jeske Crane’s article titled "Social Media As A Feminist Tool" cites “SlutWalk” : an annual march that protests victim blaming in cases of rape and sexual harassment, had its genesis on Facebook (14). In 2011 a Toronto police constable talking to a group of female students gave them a piece of well meaning yet highly problematic advice- women should “avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized” (14). Founder of SlutWalk, Heather Jarvis, read about this via a Facebook post and was outraged. A victim-blaming idea being perpetuated is never desirable, and is even worse when done by a member of law enforcement. So, Jarvis’ idea of a protest in which empowered women would don skimpy clothes while reminding society that women are never “asking for it” was born.These protestors take the word “slut” which is commonly used (even by women themselves!) as a mean of shaming the female population and reclaim it to be empowering while simultaneously exposing why the word is harmful in the first place. What started out as 1,000 participants during its first rally in 2011 has since become an international phenomenon; Spring 2013 saw over 200 SlutWalks in a smorgasbord of cities, states and countries--from Seoul, South Korea to

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With social networking and social media widely available to almost everyone in the world today, they are still not strong enough for spreading social movements to start revolution. Malcolm Gladwell argues that strong social movements, for example the civil rights movement, require strong ties in both the participants and hierarchical organizations whereas social networking websites has weak ties and lacks organization. Gladwell supports this by saying, “activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. ”(p.

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In Iran, during protest upon a rigged election, the Farsi version of Twitter had yet to have been released and the government effectively had shut down the internet in major cities, which then point to the tweeting to have originated from the West from English-speakers. Rather than just not truly understand or being there to have seen what occurred, their actions actually allowed the government to hunt opposition leaders through photos that had been posted after protest had died down. Though social media made it easier “for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns” (Gladwell 171), in this case, there was no difference, no “true” activism to be seen, and only furthered oppression. This is not to say social media is cannot help progress change. They can, yet they help facilitate it, not drive it.

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He is efficient in referencing other aspects to social life, like militarism, and conflicts other than typical elections. Whether we like it or not, our social media has a booming impact on countries around the world. This article examines the progression of social media impact over the decades. Baraniuk begins with historical examples, like that of growing radio influence creating mass panic, and is quick to point out that each active member on social media promotes their own personal version of reality, true or not.

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Social media has revolutionized how people form political opinions and make election decisions. Social platforms like Twitter are used by candidates to broadcast messages, build excitement for the candidate, inform voters about policy, and identify voters interest to properly target audiences for both voting and donating. Social media is an important tool in promoting political change and allows access to and conversation about political debates. With more Americans using computers, smartphones, and the internet politicians are turning to social media to reach voters. The Internet is a real-time interactive medium that allows people to send and receive information.

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Before social media, social activism was read from newspapers and heard on the radio. Modern day, if people want to take part in social movements they can view the movements page on Facebook or visit their website. With the help of the internet, news can spread to more people and gather more support with the number of followers. The issue with social media activism is that the people will like the movement’s page, but do nothing further. This leads to a false front on the data collected through the online pages versus the action that was actually seen in the past.

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For example, the social social structure of social media is weak, loose connections and not hierarchical. In contrast, the social structure of traditional activism such as the sit-ins and protests are characterized by strong, high risk strategies, and hierarchical. These systems results in very contrasting characteristics and shows that there is a shift from protests that happened through traditional protests and current 21st century social media. It should be noted that both, social media and traditional activisms are in response to a “fever”. Traditional structure of activism is illustrated through the segregation of the South in the 1960’s while social media structure is illustrated through Facebook and Twitter responses to raise money for Darfur or Save Sameer.

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In this essay, we will be discussing the historical context of The Outsiders. The time period when this book was being written was when the United States was increasing its activity in Vietnam, and the civil rights movement was gaining momentum, and the Beats movement of the 1950s was transitioning into the hippie movement of the 1960s. But yet not one of these political and social movements was referenced in the book. The focus of the novel is instead on class and the way it affects these specific teenagers. When the United States were getting involved in the Vietnam war, they were afraid that communism would have spread to South Vietnam and the rest of Asia.

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Malcom Gladwell puts forth an argument about whether true social and political activism can take place through the use of Internet social media. Gladwell further explains the advantages of social media, especially Twitter, what is has done, and how it has impacted the lives of individuals and countries. I affirm that, the social media has presented a policy for expression, and will be a new change for everyone in the society. Tools of social media such as Twitter and Face-book have brought a new perspective in social activism. These technological platforms have made it easier even for the powerless to cooperate, collaborate and also air their opinions, as compared to the traditional political and social authority.

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n today’s society the internet plays a huge role in the everyday lives of many people, therefore many individuals’ main form of communication is over sites like Facebook, and twitter. In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change, Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted,” he explores the different methods used by activists nowadays versus those used by the activists in the 1960s. Gladwell argues that social media is not an effective tool to initiate revolutionary movements or any change at all for that matter, based off its weak ties formed over different social networks. Gladwell illustrates multiple cases of protests and adds that without the assistance of social media, these protests were stronger, prearranged and based off deeper emotional ties. Throughout the article Gladwell continuously returns to the Civil rights movement and why it was effective.

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In her article, ‘On Date Rape,’ she discusses the dangers of women being raped due to mixed signals given out from both parties. However, she discusses it with a double standard that the rapist may be looked upon as the victim and the female can be put to blame, because some will say that only herself could have prevented it. Camille Paglia expresses her opinion as an anti-feminist who not only feels but actually believes that feminists have mislead women by telling them that they can do anything they want without any long-term consequences. In her article, she makes use of many fallacies including false analogies, hasty generalizations, and personal attacks, while trying to argue her personal stance on today’s woman

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Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” (Gladwell, 2010), begins by deliberating over the impact of social media on activism in modernity. In the 1960’s activism had an entirely different technique than it does currently; sit-ins were organized that

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Introduction There is great contention regarding the impact of social media on political activism in Canada. While social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offer users new opportunities to communicate, share, and disseminate memes and ideas, they also promote or facilitate the movement into streets for protests or other forms of activity. The arguments against social media generally revolve around its disposition towards remaining sedentary, behind the screen of a laptop or smart phone, writing short messages for the opposition to witness instead of actually making a physical presence in the real world. Alternatively, those who regularly engage in social media activism argue that they are raising awareness for their cause, which is theoretically true if one is to consider the sudden surge in discussion about specific topics.

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Despite the eventual fall of the public sphere, the Kony 2012 campaign was still effective in unleashing the ability of social media to legitimize authority by effectively using the public voice to create change. Kony 2012 caused a huge reemergence of Habermas’ public sphere. Kony 2012 was the first time that social media was used for activist purposes. With Facebook being the most heavily used medium to voice the campaign, it created a platform for public discourse to take place. However, through the failure of this campaign emerged a new way to facilitate the public sphere.

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Social Media Helps Social Activism Social Media Helps Social Activism Social media is a key importance in many organizations and movements that happen across the world. The official definition of activism according to the Google Dictionary is the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. An example of one movement that is widely known around the world that social media played a big part of is the black lives matter movement. The black lives matter movement started after a series of events where police officers shot innocent african americans teenagers but was not getting major attention worldwide until a hashtag that started on twitter brought major awareness to the situation and became a

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In conclusion, political impact on social media is huge and obvious. Social media platforms is substituting the traditional formal news media which has restrictions on the news and information they share especially in closed societies. Governments of closed societies are facing a problem because the government cannot control the news and the information shared on the internet which diminish the government authority to control their citizens. Lack of control on internet has made social media a platform for activists in politics and human right

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