Where were you when you first heard about the recent terrorist attacks in Paris? What about the terrifying clown phenomenon where clowns are showing up to high schools across the country threatening students? Chances are you were scrolling down your Facebook news feed, or patrolling your Twitter feed during your down time. Social media is important due to it being a platform that allows people to connect with each other as well as their surroundings, and to formulate movements based on the events that are going on around them.
On August 9th 2014 Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager was gunned down in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Outrage was sparked all throughout black communities nationwide. People took social media to display their frustrations. The hashtag #Blacklivesmatter was coined. #BlackLivesMatter went from a hashtag to a full blown movement that fights against systematic oppression and racism. #Blacklivesmatter became stronger with every retweet. Protest were organized on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A new social media driven Era of activism had been unleashed amongst America’s youth.
Social Media has proven to be more than just pictures of food, and status updates that no one needed to know anything about. These social sites have been instrumental in helping to instill social change. Social Media has also helped the public connect with serious news worthy events such as the presidential debate. News outlets such as CNN have even taken to social media to update the public on various events. Social Media is extremely important to society because of its connecting the people to each other as well as it connecting people to the world around them.
