Social Medi The Black Lives Matter Movement

477 Words2 Pages

“The superfluity of communication today has produced everything…” (Thompson 349). Social media has a prominent role in everyone’s lives. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, texting, and email are some of the many ways that people communicate through social media. Although some argue that social media eliminates intimate face-to-face connection, social media has the power to create progressive and important change in society. One example of a positive change through social media is how the Black Lives Matter movement developed. Despite the fact that social media removes face-to-face connection, it has the power to inform and motivate. Social media and technology can bring people in far distance closer together, through a screen and a keyboard. …show more content…

Many people involved in the movement posted experiences of injustice in their lives which helped to expose the discrimination against African Americans. According to Thompson, “Our tools are everywhere, linked with our minds, working in tandem” (Thompson 347). Social media can be seen as the “tools” we utilize to share our thoughts and feelings. The word tandem denotes a bicycle with seats and pedals for two riders, one behind the other. Likewise, tandem connotes a team of two working together to reach a common goal. Humans and social media are like an equal partnership. An example of the human-social media partnership can be the personal stories of discrimination shared across the globe. These stories of sparks feelings of anger and sadness. Several stories of discrimination went viral which educated many ignorant people that were ignorant of the bigotry that exists. As a community, people of the Black Lives Matter movement organized several protests around the country. These acts of unity grabbed people’s attention. With the attention grasped from news stations and other social media platforms, many people started to become aware of the injustice and discrimination within their own society. Without social media, the Black Lives Matter movement may not have been shaped into