Let’s cheers to me making it through week two of the new semester! It honestly feels like nothing new. I have gotten into the swing of things way too quickly; it feels as though my routine of eating, sleeping, attending class, running, and homework never halted over break. Though, amidst the craziness and repetitiveness that is my life, things have been shaken up a bit in my social media course.

Every class for the past few days or so, there has been a new Proffessor coming in to give us a lecture alongside the watchful eyes of my original professor. This is because the school is looking to hire another communication Proffessor.  This is exciting as it switches up the class routine a bit and we get to meet more people in the industry.

I loved making a wide range of new connections and having been able to learn from a wide variety of people in my social media course. One discussIon that really stood out to me was from Ms. Christina Riley this past Tuesday. 

In her lecture she discussed the basics of the benefits and downsides to using social media for activism. I thought that this was important to learn because oftentimes what we see portrayed by the media is only the end result of campaigns. 

We are only exposed to the hashtags, the movements that are taken to the streets, and the celebrities and influencers that are mounted at the forefront of these campaigns. Very rarely are we exposed to why social movements choose social media to head their cause. Through Ms. Riley’s lecture it became evident that groups take to social media to spread news, but also get ordinary people involved and make them feel like heroes. 

When we use a hashtag and repost or re-share something noteworthy it makes us feel “woke” or like a good person. In reality, it was just a post that people are most likely going to scroll right past without a single thought. We didn’t take to talk shows or show up to the office of law-makers. We just shared a hashtag with no context thinking that we did something great. Though it is not active activism, it is still something nonetheless and that minuscule actions like this are what large scale social movements thrive off of on social media. Though that one hashtag does not directly create change, it still has the ability to cause a conversation.