Is Online Activism — Activism?
With the increase use of technology, online activism has skyrocketed as another form advocacy. Online activism is using your online platform to promote or intervene any political, social, environmental issues with a wish to promote change. Online activism can look like reposting someone’s Instagram story, posting on your feed to bring awareness of an issue, and many other ways. Online activism goes hand in hand with digital leadership because digital leadership can look like using your platform to achieve awareness over a certain topic and using your voice in a digital way.
Due to the increase of online activism, some people suggest that it take away from actual positions of activism. As Natasha Pinon discussed, “some argue that online activism — sometimes despairingly called slacktivism — might be ineffective or lazy, especially when compared to the efforts of activists in decades past” (2019). From an outside perspective, it can seem like online activism is a cop out. Especially for someone who does not have much of an online presence, it can seem like the bare minimum to repost something and a lack of effort for something that people should be passionate about. For me, I would say in the past that I would maybe agree that online activism is not as powerful as typical actions of activism, but especially due to COVID-19, I would disagree. I felt that online activism has skyrocketed in these times, especially because people did not have the opportunities to use their voice in a typical way. Now more than ever, I feel like younger generations have been more aware of social and political issues thanks to online activism. In some ways, I would say that online activism is more powerful now than regular activism because of our online platforms which can bring positive change and awareness.
Additionally, online platforms are growing more than ever thanks to social media apps such as Twitter and Instagram. These apps are a great tool to use for online activism. DeRay Mckeeson, a leader in the world of online activism, discusses how powerful platforms such as Twitter can be for these issues. He says what makes Twitter so powerful is that the power is held in the people. The spokesperson of these issues is not an outside source rather, “the people, in a very democratic way, became the voice of struggle” (Berlatsky, 2015). One example of online activism that is trending is the #ENDSARS protest in Nigeria. People in Nigeria are fighting back against police brutality especially protesting against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) which is known as an abusive branch of the Nigerian Police. Due to online activism, this movement has caught momentum and brought awareness to this issue.
