There have been many occurrences in history where people
rallied together in hopes of creating change, from the betterment of a
community or individual to that of humanity as a whole. Examples within the past century would
include movements for women’s rights along with movements for the rights of
African Americans. These were movements which
people devoted their time and resources into fulfilling. Nowadays, there seems to be this mentality
that simply liking a picture on Facebook or retweeting a picture on Twitter
will bring about change. Now wouldn’t
the world be wonderful if a photo of a child could be shared and that child
would instantly have medical treatment, or even food and water? Unfortunately, life doesn’t work like that; food
and water has to come from somewhere, then there has to be the human resources
to distribute that food and water, or in terms of medical treatment, there has
to be a doctor to deliver that treatment, along with the necessary supplies.
Society is fooled into thinking that simply raising
awareness will get anything done. Now
there isn’t anything wrong with raising awareness, but it won’t go anywhere if
there aren’t people to take up the mantle and do something about it. We can go and like or share a picture a
million times, but if no one actually cares to do the work needed to get
something done, then it’s just a waste of time.
It is about as good as a manufacturer advertising great cars, but when
you go to buy one, they don’t exist.
Kony 2012 was a
great example of how society can be tricked into believing the overestimated
powers of social media. Millions of
people liked and shared a documentary about Kony
2012, and hey that’s fantastic, but what has been done about it? Nothing,
it was simply an online fad that made its way around the net and received its
15 minutes of glory, now almost 2 years later I haven’t seen a single Kony 2012 photo since. It’s pretty much been forgotten and left to
die. Now I can’t credit this documentary
with this, but there are stories of people escaping from the LRA which is run
by Joseph Kony. Perhaps awareness gave
them the courage to escape, perhaps not, but one thing is almost certain, this
campaign didn’t achieve much of anything. Why is that? It’s because no one has
any intention of actually doing something about it, or maybe people do, they
just don’t have the resolution to get too deeply involved. Not to mention the actual human and financial
resources needed to achieve the actual wanted result would be astounding. You’d also be fighting the very people you
are trying to rescue. I’m not too sure
people are willing to risk their lives for that, and asking people to escape
without providing help is just irresponsible.
In short, social media is not a driver for change. It’s is merely an outlet. The real driver for change is what it has
always been from the very beginning. That is the dedication and tenacity of
people, and social media won’t change that.
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