Does social activism work?

Activists took to social media on Sept. 23 after none of the officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor were charged for her death. 

While protests broke out in the streets nationwide after the announcement, social media protests broke out on the internet with the trending hashtag #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor. 

Twenty-six-year-old Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her bedroom by police on March 13 and has since become one of the major posthumous figures of the Black Lives Matter movement. Social media has been one of the biggest tools for this movement, which began as a hashtag before moving to street demonstrations. 

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 has relied heavily on social media, but it raises the question of the effectiveness of social media activism.

Marisela Martinez-Cola is a professor of sociology at Utah State University, whose research focuses on social movements. According to Martinez-Cola, the impact of social media activism depends on one’s platform. She said if someone is followed by people who share their views, posting on social media won’t make much of a difference. 

“But if you have, for example, family members who are following you who you know are not going to like what you just tweeted or what you just posted,” Martinez-Cola said, “then they’re going to let you know, and you find or have the courage or patience to talk to them about it.” 

Martinez-Cola also said that social media activism should not be used as a substitute for actual action. 

“Social media doesn’t replace social action,” she said. “It just enhances it.”

Tomoya Averett, a student at Utah State University, began engaging in social media activism this year, and shortly after the death of Breonna Taylor, decided to use her following to create social action. 

“Obviously I was angry and upset, and I didn’t really know what to do, you know, other than, like, making posts on Instagram and making posts on Twitter,” Averett said. “I wanted to do something more, and I wanted to do something that was tangible.”

Averett began selling shirts over social media to raise money to donate to bail funds for Black Lives Matter protestors. She sold 1,000 shirts in less than a week and is now the CEO of her own merchandise company, Girasol, which continues to donate proceeds to different organizations. 

Averett said social media activism does make a difference, but there is a fine line between activism and “slacktivism.” 

She cited Blackout Tuesday as an example of slacktivism. Many social media users posted black squares to their accounts on June 2, in a collective social media protest against racism. This movement came under criticism, as many activists believed these posts to be an empty gesture. 

“Posting a black square is great, but what are you going to do tomorrow and the day after that?” Averett said. “Are you actually having conversations, or did you just do that because of, you know, how it looks? I think it can create change, and it can make a difference if your intent is where it should be, and if you’re being consistent about it and not just doing it when it’s convenient.”

Darcy Ritchie is a second-year journalism student at Utah State from Idaho Falls, Idaho. Outside of writing for the Statesman, she loves to DJ for Aggie Radio, eat french bread in the Walmart parking lot, and tweet.

—darcy.ritchie@usu.edu

@darcyrrose