Jonathan Carr ‘22
The Cost of #Efficiency
It was March 24, 2018, the day of the March for Our Lives in downtown Los Angeles. It was my first ever protest rally, so my excitement was at an all-time high. I put on my camo pants for combat against injustice, my Black Panther shirt for empowerment, and my shades for a mask, and my mother drove me downtown. I was entering a new world, one where I joined millions in standing up. Ever since I saw the students from Parkland stand up and demand gun control laws, I was determined to support them. So, with my poster in hand, I yelled, “No more fear! Gun control NOW!” Millions of people, yelling alongside me, took to the street, allowing this seemingly universal demand to bind us together, emboldening us to stand against resistance.
Later, on Instagram, I posted pictures with the hashtag, #Marchforourlives. I was proud to not only use the hashtag, but also to fight in real time for a cause I believed in. I could have easily found a picture or article online and shared it with the same hashtag, but I knew that kind of action was no action at all. In fact, relying on the hashtag alone would be completely ineffective. In an article for WIRED magazine entitled “Me Too and the Problem with Viral Outrage,” Jessi Hempel writes that the hashtag, “…despite the best intentions of so many participating—is everything that’s wrong with social media.” The hashtag is ultimately imperfect and flawed as a political tactic, as it satisfies the wish to identify with a particular movement, without demanding the user take any further action.
Hempel writes, “Outrage is central to the design of most social media platforms—for very good reason. It’s an emotion that inspires sharing, which causes all of us to spend more time engaged with the platform.” Many people have their reasons for browsing a hashtag. The open access journal Firstmonday.org ran a survey to see why people read tweets with particular hashtags, and also why they publish tweets with them. According to the results, 73% of subjects who created the tweets wanted to show support, 70% wanted to share experiences, and 57% wanted to share information with others. As for the people who read them, the dominant percentage (64%) wanted to understand the issue better. Wanting to understand social issues is, well, understandable. However, the real question becomes, what happens after readers know more about a particular problem? Do they choose to remain angry and allow themselves to indulge in these social grievances, or do they pick up a poster and join a rally?
The reason Black Lives Matter became a movement is not just due to the hashtag, but the formative driving reasons behind it. The shootings of Philando Castile in 2016 and Tamir Rice in 2012, as well as the acquittal of the officers responsible, angered people to form and join protests (such as in Baton Rouge back in August 2016, after the shooting death of Alton Sterling, or a year before that in Baltimore, after police killed a black man named Freddie Gray). The movement influenced millions to demand police accountability, and to participate in a conversation about institutional racism and harmful profiling. Niraj Chokshi of The New York Times describes the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, “The label appears to have lasting power, simmering like a low-grade fever on social media and roaring to life with every police killing of a black citizen and every racial protest that makes the news, informing the long-running national debate.” But regardless of the hashtag’s constant resurgence, the long-running tragedy of unarmed men being murdered remains unresolved, and ultimately reiterates to affected communities that their struggle against prejudicial actions is far from over. To see families that have lost their loved ones to violence, then to see powerful sheriff’s, judges, and politicians who are fully aware, yet have no regard to resolve these issues, is egregious. Therefore, through this anger, many have been inspired to exercise their right and encourage others to do so, via social media hashtags—but the situation, fundamentally, does not change.
#Metoo gained traction after many women accused powerful celebrities, politicians, and businessmen of sexual harassment or assault. The most powerful part about this movement is the women who speak out about their personal experiences to advance these issues. Evident in the accusations and arrest of Harvey Weinstein, the women who stood up and revealed his actions inspired other sexual assault victims to speak out as well. In the words of the hashtag’s founder, Tarana Burke, “We are doing it from a framework that’s central to survivors, and to make sure the most that marginalized among survivors have access to resources that will help them cross the human journey.” The movement is driven from a growing conversation, and with this comes a surrounding sense of security, and eventually, healing from past traumas. These women sharing their experiences has created a cycle of empowerment and comfort, as well as a lack of fear to oppose those that wronged them.
Considering social media has played such a vital part in political movements of late, tweets and Facebook posts should be captioned with announcements for rallies and town halls, or should indicate nonprofits that can take donations. These are effective strategies in pushing for solutions. Most people are followers and would rather someone else take a risky step forward and they, in response, tweet support. Real action must be taken to make a change. In 2015, millions stood by these hashtags: #Blacklivesmatter, #PrayforParis, #Lovewins, and #Refugeeswelcome. Derrick Feldmann of Philanthropy Magazine argues that advocacy groups and nonprofits must help persuade the people into action, invoking them to become their own leaders. A successful example of this push is in the #748million movement, a 2015 campaign that took place not long before World Water Day, and that recognized the 748 million people without clean water through every social media channel. Though the campaign only lasted a day, it was effective because of the leadership behind it. Feldmann noted that the nonprofit group, Charity: Water, “encouraged its participants to be the heroes: to spark conversations about water scarcity, share a video about the issue, join an “InstaMeet,” donate to the cause, and speak up for the millions of people without access to clean water.” Actions such as these motivate people to speak up about critical issues, and use newly acquired knowledge to find ways to make a change.
The hashtag’s major advantage in effectively creating powerful movements is the awareness it generates. Awareness is the first step to starting a movement; however, the next step is finding action, and sidestepping the “Bystander Effect.” In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered outside of her home in Queens. The murderer ambushed her and proceeded to stab her. Because she cried out for help, over thirty people looked out of their windows—but none of them called the police, or went out to intervene. This painful example echoes within our approach to social media today. It is easy to want to help fight a social issue, but following a crowd is no different from not moving at all.
The #Metoo movement gained over a million tweets in 2017, and awareness is now worldwide. Now, leaders such as Alyssa Milano, who popularized #Metoo, must motivate social media users offline. What makes people comfortable is being outraged about something, but Hempel suggests that eventually, “…we become numb to tragedies because we’re unable to process the emotions they engender at the speed with which they arise.” The more we simply follow along with the outrage of an atrocity, we further edge away from the desire to stop it, or the knowledge of how. Leaders of movements on social media must convey that being a bystander will not change anything—action is what matters.
The March for Our Lives made me understand the importance of taking steps against an injustice, and though the hashtag can be one of them, it is really not a major step. It has its benefits, but of course, as with any trend of social media, it has its cons. The hashtag achieves the awareness needed to start a movement, however, that is all. To emphasize the movement’s importance, there must be action involved, otherwise it is meaningless. It is not the hashtag is not that defines a movement, ultimately, but the people who step up and choose to be involved.