Digital Leadership
Online activism, comes from someone who has enough heart about a certain subject In our social world that they believe It has to be addressed and fixed. That is what I think when I picture online activism. The courageous efforts for people to put their beliefs before their social status for a short period of time to raise awareness for a change in our society and that Is exactly how it relates to digital leadership. It takes some courage to get out of your comfort zone and post something that you want to raise awareness to, especially when some of the population, or your followers, may not necessarily agree with those view points.
I don’t think I realize how much change one can do from behind a keyboard because I think often people, Including me, just think that they can never actually get a positive message out about a certain subject of hurt within our society to the people because I don’t see social media as a platform for that kind of stuff for Its main use. But at the same time I personally have seen some pretty incredible things on social media. Most recently the whole BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement was all over every social media platform raising awareness of the social Injustice that African American people face to this very day even tho racism was “ended” decades ago, it is obvious that’s not the case. The surge online from so many different people and sources is helping us take a step In the right direction as we work to make this country safe for everyone of all colors, but we aren’t there yet, and that’s why we can’t stop being online activists for this very issue. At the same time we have to be conscious of how we are being portrayed, there’s a difference between online activism and online outrage. Respect others opinions and just keep attempting to educate people on your beliefs and respect others. This internet can be a place for positive change we just have make a conscious effort to educate and not point fingers.
Digital tools can be the world of difference in our communities. The reason being Is that so many people have access to the internet and the word can be spread so much faster than versus not using the digital tools we have been provided with. Can you imagine the BLM movement without social media? I doubt there would have been any try for change considering people would have no video evidence as they do through social media and not nearly as many people would hear about It, especially not people of the opposite race because it doesn’t happen to people of the opposite race so how would one be able to actually decipher the problem at hand and what needed to be done to prevent It from occurring in the future. With the internet and social media these problems get enhanced so it can be brought to the attention of everyone so people can make necessary change to the societal problems we are faced with, such as the BLM movement we have seen very recently In our own backyard.
One case of activism I can share actually comes from one of my good friends. He was a huge online activist during the whole BLM protests and movements making sure protestors would be supplied with water while marching and that poor African American people would get funds from him and his followers to pay for rent. Those are just a few of the things he did for the African American community but it meant the world to these Individuals showing them that we are here for them during this time of injustice over factors they cannot control. He realized that such a small gesture to someone can mean so much to them and he continues to do these small gestures each and every day making everybody’s life just a little less stressful. Seeing the Impact he had on a specific community really opened my eyes to how much an impact you can have through online activism.
