Social Media and History

How has social media played a role in the 2020 civil rights movement and protests?

 In late 2019, or early 2020, Covid 19 sent the world into a complete shutdown. For over a year we were all asked to stay inside, isolate and distance ourselves from others. With limited options for keeping ourselves busy during quarantine, it's no surprise social media usage skyrocketed. Apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook allowed families and friends to keep in touch during unprecedented times, but that was not the only focus of these platforms. On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd was killed by a police officer, which sparked outrage and widespread protests against police brutality, and racially motivated crimes. Before social media, protests may get news coverage but nowhere near the screen time that is capable of today. Organizations like Black Lives Matter took over social media by storm and were able to reach people all over the world, something that was previously impossible.

How is social media changing the way people document history?

Before social media, there were newspapers, books, and television that would share news or historical moments/figures with their audience. However, these were nowhere 

near as powerful or accessible as social media, with limited space and time, not every story could be shared. Nowadays people carry their smartphones everywhere, to the grocery store, while hanging out with friends, or in bed. There is constant and instant access to endless bounds of information. Historical moments are shared in real-time, for example, the civil rights protests of 2020. It's not just something we would read about in a small back section of a newspaper, or years later in history books, but something viewers of social media could follow and even participate in all across the world. 

Give an example of how it’s been used in a positive, or negative way.

Although social media has many positives, there are also negatives that come along with it. Fake news and personalized feeds can be dangerous and misleading. When scrolling on social media apps, you are shown posts that are similar to what you choose to interact with, which can erase diversity and opinions that vary from your own. An example of this includes conspiracy theories like QAnon, it is easy to fall into extremes when you are only presented with one side of a debate, or told that opinions equal factual information.

If you are interested in reading more about QAnon or how social media promotes fake news I have included a couple different links below to check out.

Article on social media and fake news

Article on QAnon