Can social media save the world? By Miriam Rubio
Are #hashtags and RTs making a difference?
On this day and age it's easy to be informed about the goings-on of the world. With a simple scroll of our Facebook feed or a look at the day's TTs (trending topics) we are able to know what the latest news or gossip is. The same goes for international affairs; We are now so connected that another country's problems become our problems too.
On this day and age it's easy to be informed about the goings-on of the world. With a simple scroll of our Facebook feed or a look at the day's TTs (trending topics) we are able to know what the latest news or gossip is. The same goes for international affairs; We are now so connected that another country's problems become our problems too.
Recently,
the uprising in Venezuela and the conflict in Ukraine became popular subjects on
the web; If you were confused, and didn't know why your friends or the whole
Twitterverse were making a big deal about these countries, a simple Google
search could fix it; or if you're into trends and wanted a more detailed
explanation, you could have BuzzFeed point out everything you needed to know
about these crisis.
So,
to express their concern, people around the world attended their Instagram,
YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook accounts to post pictures, videos, words - anything,
to show their support for the victims.
Certainly,
posting a long and touching status on your Facebook profile about how you’re
sending your prayers to Venezuela can give you a sense of involvement; you're
doing your bit in fixing the world’s problems- problems that are out of your
control. But how far can social media go when dealing with a global crisis? What
difference does it make if Jared Leto, or any celebrity for that matter,
addresses the situation in front of millions of viewers on live television?
Yes,
social media can bring people together. It also informs us about events happening
on real time, whereas in another time we would have learned about incidents
like these weeks later, or maybe we would’ve never known that other countries
have it worst than we do. But, let’s not forget
how easy it is to manipulate information these days and that even in this
globalized era we can be misinformed. Sometimes we can never know what really
happened unless we´re actually THERE.
So, can a tweet overturn a dictator? Can a million YouTube views stop
the killings of innocent people? The power of social media on a blue helmet-scale
is yet to be seen. In the meantime, keep those support posts coming, and if
that doesn’t work, well, we’ll always have selfies.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment