With the introduction of social media has come viral activism. Viral activism refers to the ways in which people use social media as a means to protest and bring awareness to current issues. An example of this viral activism is the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag. This hashtag is in reference to the abduction of Nigerian school girls by a terrorist group known as Boko Haram. This hashtag was started by Obiageli Ezekwesili but is known for the attraction it received from famous people such as Michel Obama. Though the hashtag became popular, and is still popular on social media, it facilitated little physical change and many saw it as a ploy by western society to "strengthen Americas military legitimacy". This brings into question whether or not hashtags are successful in bringing about actual social change? Yes, hashtags can be used to bring awareness to important issues but what then? People may be aware of these issues but are they really helping to solve them by merely hashtaging, retweeting and "liking" ?
This idea relates to the concept of clicktivism and how people believe that by clicking the "like" button on Facebook they can make a difference. Liking something however, does not mean that you are contributing to solving an issue. Many times despite liking a cause you rarely see the affect your like has in helping to solve a problem. In this digital age we are all eager to help and believe that the easiest and most convenient way to take action is by liking a cause on Facebook or retweeting a hashtag.
Clicktivism has changed the way we engage with social media and our understanding of what it means to be an activist and support a cause. We often like or hashtag an issues and then convince ourselves that we have done our part to facilitate change. What this suggests is that we have lost our motivation to go out into the physical world and protest. Instead we have turned to online platforms that allow us to think we are contributing to a cause, while in reality, we are doing little to help. Ultimately, though social media is successful in bringing awareness to global issues, they do not always work to assist in solving them and it is important that we realize the limitations of social media in bringing about change in the real world.
