Like many of you, I often find myself scrolling through social media when I need a break from the onslaught of papers and exams that make up the life of a student. Sure, there are plenty of Instagram photos and Buzzfeed articles and other things to help me procrastinate, but more and more, it’s posts related to social justice that are overwhelming my newsfeed.
I guess this should come as no surprise, given that our generation, the Millennials, are known for our idealistic belief that we can change the world. Rather than accepting the status quo, we challenge it and search instead for pragmatic solutions to global issues. It is for this very reason that so many of us have a couple of pairs of Toms, travel internationally on mission or service trips, and aspire to work for socially responsible companies. In essence, social justice has become trendy among our generation, and that fact is perhaps most evident on social media: we tweet, share, and hashtag just about anything related to the quality of people’s lives.
Of course, there are certain benefits associated with this. In particular, we praise the awareness being brought to these issues and the public conversation surrounding them. However, I’m concerned that in many cases, such benefits are not actually being reaped because we have a distorted understanding of awareness. The infinitely complex historical, political, and social contexts of global issues like poverty, war, and racism cannot be adequately conveyed in 140 characters or even a single blog. When we rely solely on short, fragmented posts as our means of engagement with issues, it is not really awareness that we are breeding: rather, a dangerous false sense of understanding causes us to think that we are qualified—or worse, entitled—to have meaningful opinions in regards to addressing these issues. For example, most of us can probably remember when the Kony 2012 video swept the Internet several years ago. While we were quick, myself included, to rightfully condemn the Ugandan warlord and his ruthless use of child soldiers, how many of us could really explain what the Lord’s Resistance Army was, how it had come to be, and how it was surviving? How many of us could even identify Uganda on a map? How many of us realize today that three years later, Joseph Kony has yet to be captured? That 30 minute viral documentary, though, was sufficient for many of our purposes. We were moved emotionally, informed of the most basic information concerning the subject, and able to share it on Facebook. Once the craze surrounding that issue started to die down, though, so did our passion for it. On to the next trendy issue.
As someone who is studying International Development and Communication with the hope of someday using these skills and social media platforms to get people passionate about global issues, I really do understand that awareness is critical to any social movement. For this reason, I’m not trying to dissuade you from posting about these issues on social media. What I am trying to dissuade you from is limiting your engagement with these issues to only that.
If you really want to change the world (or even just your community), start by striving to truly become aware of the issues. Educate yourself by doing sound research, meeting the people behind social justice issues and listening to them. After all, these are their stories and we must remember that it is another injustice and indignity if we simply reduce their pain to a catchy hashtag or a profile filter that, if we’re honest, we may be using to make ourselves feel like we’ve made a difference today. Ultimately though, the purpose of real awareness is to motivate people to action. Knowing a great deal of statistics and historical facts is of little value if it does not compel us to advocate for, to serve, and to love those whom are affected by these issues. We can do this in a number of ways, but however you choose, do it with a pure heart.