We’ve burned bras, done sit-ins, marched among millions and even started riots and got arrested a few times –– all in the same of justice. Those were the good old days, am I right? When the social justice warriors actually “went out and did something” instead of just wasting their time typing out paragraphs of complaints online to literally billions of nobodies across the world. How could a bunch of millennials actually think they could change the world in 140 characters or less?

Let's address the very obvious, but somehow forgotten fact that times have changed, the internet is a huge part of practically everyone's everyday life now. Social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, etc. on smartphones have made it that much easier to share and connect with virtually anyone at any time, about anything. It's a huge community! We've done everything from helping Justin Bieber find his mystery girl to helping identical twin sisters discover one another's existence!

In my own opinion, I don't think most the people with "social justice tweets" are particularly aiming to be hardcore activist leaders. Instead, they're opening a dialogue. They're starting a discussion about their own issues and struggles that the media often decides to overlook. Social media sites have given them the opportunity to use their voice without waiting for a skewed version of it from Fox News. Several hashtags on Twitter were created and used numerous times to help keep the dialogue alive and trending. "#BlackLivesMatter, "#YesAllWomen, #RefugeesWelcome, #ICantBreathe and many more were used thousands of times in tweets to raise awareness on issues, and they often provided firsthand accounts from protests.

Even if they are trying to be hard-core activist through twitter and Facebook, what's the big deal? With 307 million active Twiter profiles and 1.44 billion users on Facebook, your post is reaching a lot of people. A hundred and forty characters may not seem like enough to express anything meaning, but many active internet users have mastered the art of "activist tweeting." Even if some of it is purely for retweets, the attention is still raising awareness, and for people who don't have the sources to raise awareness about issues on their own, the millions of internet activists who have the social following to make hashtags viral can bring the perfect amount of attention to things that would otherwise go overlooked and ignored.