I'm curious- with the infiltration of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogging)- have we lost our reputation as staunch political activists? Or has our involvement increased/ taken a turn for the better (as in educating our fellow student via the internet)?
I am inclined to believe in social media's benefit; I enthusiastically take part in it and find myself educated on more issues/opinions I would not have been exposed to otherwise. However, I'm not sure if at the same time it has caused us to become a more passive group living vicariously through the internet.
I would agree with you that social media has increased young people's ability to be informed on more issues. It provides an easy and convenient way to find out about things that would otherwise only be covered in media geared toward an older audience. The social media allows for fast traveling information, allowing for a more coordinated resistance if the need should occur. Granted there are those who look at social media as a replacement for physical energy and activism. I disagree with that take on it. It is merely another tool that can be used to coordinate activism. The older generation is not influenced by ramblings on social media sites, but rather, what they produce.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you both as well. Although it can't be argued that Facebook and Twitter have the potential to and usually succeed in wasting substantial amounts of our time, the youth's reputation for political activism still lives on, and I believe has simply evolved to be communicated through this new media. For example a lot of students here at UCLA changed their profile picture to pictures of fliers containing information about the UC budget cuts and calling people to action against it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that the internet has made political activism much more accessible to the youth and certainly it has allowed for more, easier ways for us to express our political beliefs. However, I also believe that Mueller's perception of the younger generation is limited to that of the counterculture. Certainly in today's world you don't see the massive physical energy of the hippies nor do you see the anti-conventional living movement -- rather it seems that we have formed a new American Dream, perhaps something between the cookie cutter lifestyle of the 50's and the loose, riotous living of the 60's. The youth is still undoubtedly the "new left."
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