Reading Response 4/21/2017

For this week, we continued with the reading of How the World Changed Social Media through the readings of the “Gender,” “Inequality,” and “Politics” chapters. Specifically related to the chapters on gender and inequality, the results of the use of social media on these topics was dependent on the region and/or how it was used. For example, in some parts of Turkey, social media was highly monitored by the individual and relatives alike to make sure women were only portraying wholesome or culturally appropriate materials. The Facebook profiles of these women was a censored version of their real lives in order to fit the cultural norms of socially acceptable behavior. In this case, social media acts to reinforce gender norms. However, in other parts of the world, through the use of fake accounts or names, people are more expressive and act out of their prescribed gender roles. This goes on to show how it is nearly impossible to make a generalization about the use of social media.

The politics chapter discussed how and why social media may (or may not) be used for political activism. One thing that stood out to me in the article and what I have also personally experienced is how your social sphere really affects what kind of political discussions you are exposed to. People tend to surround themselves with like-minded people or the place they are living may have a leaning towards one direction, causing their Facebook news feed to feature only one type of thoughts and opinions. For example, I went to a Catholic high school so I tend to see posts from both my conservative high school friends but also my liberal WashU friends that I met in college. However, I do know that if I go into the newsfeed of either my high school friend or my WashU friend, more often than not, their newsfeed will be heavily skewed towards one side. This shows how social media can reinforce your opinions because that may be the only one you are ever exposed to.

The Ferguson article that was assigned discussed the use of hashtags in political activism, specifically related to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. With the rise of the internet and social media, we are able to hear about events that happen all across the country and have a platform in which we can discuss or state our opinions on the subject matter. In this case, twitter and hashtags were used to protest and also to show solidarity with the events that happened. I personally think that the use of social media in political activism is a great way to raise awareness of issues and events that other people may not know about. However, I do know that there are some downsides to this, such as people using the movement for personal gain or just speaking on social media without any action.