Social Media to Create a Social Impact
I have recently watched a Ted Talk on Amonge Sinxoto, a 17 year old Activist from South Africa. Sinxoto’s purpose is to give a voice for the African youth to acknowledge their frustrations in a non judgmental environment. At such a young age she was able to take a stand in world issues and give people a voice. How you ask? By using Instagram and social media. She told us her secrets on how to use social media to impact society in four steps. The first is to invest in a cause, that can either be creating your own, joining a pre existing one or by simply doing your research on social issues. Her next step is to find them, by them she means the people who are passionate about the issue(s). This step is is not a solo project, it takes a group effort. This step also includes finding a way to make the rest of the world care about the issue and with social media it made this step a lot easier. For her third step, Sinxoto says you have to prepare and populate a remedy. This step is important because if you never had an implementation for a solution then this whole process would be meaningless and there would really be no point to even starting an awareness for a certain cause.
I have noticed how a similar story to Amonge’s while reading Social Media Transformed Teens’ Ability to Build Activist Movements Online. This article shows the depths and hardships Rayne Fisher-Quann had faced while protesting issues in school and social issues. Rayne had conducted her own schools walkout by using social media. Here she caught the attention of students from over 100 schools with the use of Instagram. Her protest followed the work and steps that Amonge discussed in her Ted Talk. Rayne had used just about the same steps in her activism including step one, finding a topic. Here she looks for issues that affect her and the people around her. Then she talked on looking for her audience and how to catch their attention and why the issue affects them too. One was a school’s walkout after the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida. Finally there was consistently with the post on social media. Rayne used Snapchat and Instagram and post the details of the protest and walks on there just as Amonge talked about as her final landmark in using social media to create a social change.
Both Rayne and Amonge have put time, effort and resources into their social movements. Each have represented and showed how anyone can help make a change no matter your age, race, or any other factor. With the simple use of social media these teenagers are able to make a huge impact in the world. Amonge and Rayne had used Instagram to to get the attention of youths globally for a social impact.
Social Issues
Due to the use of social media I have found myself more involved in social problems. Social issues that I care about are all on the basis of Human Rights. This is because everyone deserves the rights and to not be treated differently due to race, religion or sex. In order for myself to spread these social issues on social media I would have to use number four of Amonge’s pillar system which is to be consistent. This includes resharing and posting on stories including but not limited to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and any other site that has viewers. I would also have to dedicate time throughout my day to share my thoughts and opinions on the topic and maybe even create creative posts on photo editing apps to grab people’s attention. To continue to share the issue amongst social media will bring awareness and help spread the idea through many and help people gain the knowledge on the topic and with that it can eventually lead to a solution.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/social-media-activism-changed-everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3OqmGhLgc
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