As an active user of social media since I was young, I have seen all of the trends that have circulated throughout the years. From the puka shell necklaces to the devious licks, topics like these get attention for a couple months and then slowly fade away. Never did I think that human rights would be categorized into this construct.
Black Lives Matter is a movement that focuses mainly on police brutality and hate crimes toward African Americans. The organization has been helping fight the issues since 2013 when it first originated. The social media hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, went viral in 2020 after a video of George Floyd being pinned down by a police officer surfaced on the internet.
According to the National Library of Medicine, 1.13 million public Instagram accounts used the hashtag. People would change their profile pictures to a symbolic black fist and post black squares on Black out Tuesday, which was a day dedicated to honoring black Americans. For a few months people were constantly spreading awareness on the issue. However, this support slowly died down. Less and less posts were made. Black squares were deleted and profile pictures were changed. Now two years later, I no longer see Black Lives Matter posts. On August 27, a federal hate crime occurred in Jacksonville, Florida. Three African Americans were found dead due to gunshots. Racism does not go away. So why did the support?
We are lucky that we have the internet to broadcast these horrible things happening in the world. Without social media, the invasion of Ukraine would not have been as well known as it was in February of 2022. Over $1.4 million dollars were raised for Ukraine through internet app GoFundMe, according to Human Rights Watch. However, just like the Black Lives Matter movement, Ukraine began to receive less and less support everyday. Fundraisers selling bracelets to raise money for Ukraine suddenly stopped as well.
These two topics are some of the biggest issues I have seen surface the internet then pass by as if it was an era of outfits. Other discussions that regularly get brought to the internet are sexual assault and LGBTQ+ issues.
Stories will be seen on one person’s social media account and then everyone will repost it to look like a good, involved person, but after the post deletes 24 hours later, it is never talked about. This is an act of performative activism. For example, a post where the caption will be “Repost or else you do not like about gay people” forces people to act like they care so they do not seem like an insensitive person. This also does not educate viewers on what the topic is truly about.
We can say that these subjects matter to us but real support is continuing to promote and donate to issues that are important. Social media brings awareness, but going to protests and spending your time helping important matters is really what makes one a true activist.
Next time you are going to post about a social issue, think, is it because you really want to support this topic or just because you want to be seen as a good person?
