New At The Broad Side: Is Social Media Really Activism?

This is one of my less popular opinions but I don’t think online tools are great for getting a message to decision makers. I think they’re good for organizing, disseminating messages among activists, and building momentum. However, I think that there comes a point where you have to get off the internet and get in the room. I explain further at The Broad Side:

If you really want to be an agent of change,  you need to get off the Internet and get in the room. What room am I talking about? Any room with a decision maker in it. It might be an office on Capitol Hill, it might be community forum, it might be a fundraiser that you pay to get into. And decision makers can be legislators, corporate leaders, staff of a government agency, or the principal of your local school. These are people who are supposed to give ear to the voices of the people they serve.

They are not required to go trolling Twitter to find what those voices have to say. You have to break through the static of internet noise and get your message across clearly and individually.

What I don’t say over there, and I probably should have, is that as an internet presence, you’re unverifiable. Yeah, your cause FB page could have 1200 “likers” but how it is a lawmaker to know that it’s not the same person clicking like using 1200 fake FB accounts? And signatures on online petitions are just as sketchy. But showing up and showing your face is hard to argue with. That’s why I’m such a proponent of face to face activism.

Read the whole post at The Broad Side!

 

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