Who do I know? BR#3

In all actuality I don’t know so many people. I know my family, and I know a few close friends, but knowing someone, really knowing someone, is more than just being friends on Facebook or retweeting someone because you went to high school with them a few years back. All of the people I really know I have met through common interests like rugby, school or volunteering. Not one person who I have met online has ever come close to knowing me or having any sort of influence on my life. My boyfriend I met at Brock, my roommates I met at Brock through rugby, my friends from home I met though school and my family has been there through my life. My close friends are my age or older, mostly white, and the majority of them are in a post secondary education with a part time job. I surround myself with good honest people that genuinely care about others and actively contribute to the community. The people I have made contact with over the internet are largely acquaintances and are for networking purposes. If I am looking to connect with someone new and there is a mutual friend (or acquaintance) involved then I have just found a common ground that allows me to relate to the other person more intimately. My network spans distant family members, to people I meet on a night out that know a friend of a friend. 

Recently I have made an attempt to begin to cut out people from my friends list that I do not regularly speak to or know all too well. So far my attempt has not proven very fruitful. The six degrees of separation that I appear to be grabbing for may be the source of my hesitation to delete any “friends” I do not regularly interact with. I seem to hold onto the friends I have just in case a situation arises in which I have to contact an old acquaintance and have to re-ad them only for them to realize that I deleted them in the first place.  

Facebook aside, my Instagram stands alone in that I have a different logic system for following people. I follow celebrities and one of my favourite accounts, Humans of New York. This account is dedicated to snapping pictures of random people and quoting interesting facts about their life. I do not feel the need to know the people I follow or who follow me directly as I find it more of an interactive sharing of thought provoking or simply interesting photographs. My opinion on the variations of social media brings up certain questions. Why do some forms of social networking hold different ideals for me in terms of the amount of personal information I portray and the amount of friends or followers I allow on my accounts. 

My networks have never provided an adequate feed in reference to activism and advocacy. There are so many restrictions on social media such as word counts and readers short attention spans, that prevents a detailed report on any issue of importance. That being said I still attempt to get what I can out of social media. The movements I follow, such as LoveBot are smart in their posts. On Instagram they don’t post too often so that they become an annoyance and their content is brief and interesting. The last post I saw from them was a picture of fan letters with their trade make stickers covering the envelopes. It shows that the movement is growing and there is a substantial response from the community. 

As for my Facebook news feed, much of what I have seen recently is regarding the riots in Ukraine. I myself am Ukrainian and much of my family is involved in the community overseas so their attempt is to raise awareness of the political uprising occurring presently. I don’t personally share much of these issues as many of the posts are of Ukrainian newspapers and I cannot read them, but the ones I do read are extremely eye opening and leads me to question why the mass media market in Canada and the US don’t seem to be reporting on it much. I don’t think that I really make much of an impact in digital activism, I am currently struggling with the question of whether or not my repost could really make that much of an impact. There can be as much awareness in the world but that does not mean that there will be any change. I don’t think that my post can really have enough of an impact on people to encourage some form of positive action aiding a movement or cause. 

the pride parade minus the parade BR#2

A collective identity can be formed through multiple avenues such as through the internet, through a collective inclination towards certain books, or through an institution such as school or work. The question should not be do they need in-the-flesh contact, but to what extent is it necessary. A collective identity is based entirely on a persons feeling of belonging within a community, organization or encompassing idea. Each individual person, some more than others, have the the opportunity to situate themselves in real life situations with real human contact. In this digital age it has become apparent that certain people do not posses this biological ability to socially interact in the real world and have then taken the internet as a crutch to fulfill their self esteem. In these situations I believe people put such a large portion of their trust into online communities that a real and true collective identity can be formed. I believe that groups no longer need in-the-flesh contact to generate a collective identity, but at the same time I believe groups that include in-the-flesh contact have a much stronger identity as their interactions with each other are more than just digital, they are also physical. 

As I previously stated a collective identity is most definitely possible but may be not as reliable as an identity formed in real world situations. I don't believe there is a collective action for social change without some form of collective identity. All of those people who scroll through their twitter feed skimming over one activist group or another are all candidates for each of those groups collective identities. Many people who just click like to support a cause, and then five minutes later have forgotten about their contribution completely, are not necessarily a part of the causes collective identity. This does not mean that there is no collective identity within that organization. The core contributors and creators of a cause have already formed a collective identity and although the thousand or so likes they get on the groups Facebook page might not represent the size of collective identity, that does not mean there isn't one. In order for an organization to thrive there must be passion and a shared understanding, this can be expressed through likes on a page but the collective identity that is formed by the group may be much smaller in numbers than it appears. 

I agree that because of the technologically driven world we live in today, a persons worth is often associated with their online presence and friend count. Employers may search up names of their potential employees to ensure they are good candidates but I don’t believe any online advocacy is nearly as dangerous as in-the-flesh protesting. The point of online social-change efforts is to access the masses though a global common ground. When there are thousands of people liking and commenting on a new wave of activist movements, there becomes strength in numbers. When you tie yourself to a tree, there are real and immediate dangers such are the wood chipper calling the police to have you arrested for imposing on their day job. When you are online commenting on a status accusing someone of being insensitive to your cause, you become a dime a dozen. The internet is filled with people who don’t have the courage to speak up in real life situations who feel empowered by the protection of their computer screen. Online activism may have the ability to access a widespread audience to spread awareness, but even have the number of people liking something on the internet would make a profound impact if they rallied a march or protest.

The internet can be used for protest, but is not nearly as impacting as protests in the streets of real life. No matter how dependant our society has become on tautology and the internet, we are inherently physical creatures. The most impactful protests and marches are large gatherings of people. The Pride march is an excellent example. Not only does it get the attention of everyone in Toronto, but people from all over Ontario and neighbouring provinces come in to join in the collective identity expressed through costumes, dances and music. Online, a protest cannot have an impact, but it is a valuable tool to coordinate and support real world actions. 

an endeavor fueled with a passion like feeling BR#1

Passion is a widely used and rarely understood word. Passion is an emotion so overwhelming that your soul shakes with anticipation. I have not yet discovered a true passion, likely because I have not experienced nearly enough in this world through my 19 years of existence. That being said a certain social movement that I was recently introduced to strikes a cord ever so close to passion. Lovebot is something that I follow on Instagram and regularly check online. A lovebot is a concrete robot with a red heart placed in various locations to remind a population so caught up in consumerism and materialism that time must always be made for good deeds and positive thoughts. My main goal in this life is happiness, whether that be for myself or for the ones I love, and in this case the close to home community of Toronto.

Personally I have not been involved in any protests and the marches I have participated in are restricted to a jump rope for heart marathon in grade two and a 5 k run for heart and stroke that I got too tired to finish. What I do involve myself in is volunteering. Over my four years of high school I accumulated over 500 hours of community service ranging from placements at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital to the Burlington Animal Shelter and a trip to the Dominican Republic to build a house. Although not directly, my volunteering is a contribution to a more caring community against capitalism. The only thing stopping me now that I am in university is my time. I play for the Brock rugby team and am looking to finish my degree early, which calls for most of my time being consumed by practices and extra classes.

Although social media has been an extremely influential tool in developing movements, groups and general emancipation, I find it creates a somewhat false reality. Social media while linking people into a global community creates a belief that people can simply like something and their work is done. There is so much more that must be done to create some sort of impact, but we are now being told that all you need to do is click a button and the problem can be solved. I believe this degrades an individuals drive to go out and actively engage in a march, protest or some other activity that may be unmeasurably more influential.