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Online War of Social Injustice

Tyler Harrison

Dona Ana Community College

The internet is a vast universe which allows the world to enter and access basically

anything they desire at the blink of an eye. This utility is at our fingertips anticipating the

utilization of it in moments of need. A near relative to the internet is social media which is

described as the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based

input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration (Rouse, 2016). Social media gives the

public opportunities to socialize, experience entertainment, share pictures and ideas, and gain

quick access to news, stories, and current events. Recently, in our technological prospering

society, social media has been used as a tool to inform the general public about social injustice

and to influence them to help fight against it. If social media is utilized correctly in this manner,

it has the potential to be an excellent resource to serve justice and give sympathy for social

injustice incidents.

Although social media can be used as an important tool to educate and positively

influence society, it is often misused and taken for granted. The majority of social media is

useless entertainment and false information which corrupts its users. Products of social media

can be A False Sense of Connection, Cyber-bullying, and Decreased Productivity (Brian

Jung). Instead of mindlessly occupying teenagers and young adults, distracting them from

responsibilities, social media should be used to provide important information and inform

individuals of problems occurring in the world. Social media is capable of producing

constructive results, its just being used in the wrong way. A prominent issue currently effecting

the population is social injustice. Social injustice is a situation when some unfair practices are

being carried in the society (Farooq, 2015). The unjust occurrence is typically against the law

and may be considered an unmoral practice. Fortunately, individuals passionate about social

injustice situations have introduced their stance on social media. If the occurrence of bringing
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social justice issues to social media is done correctly and covers valid issues, it can be used to

enhance the application of social media all together. It can also create awareness about issues and

help prevent them in the future.

A valid motive that makes social media an effective platform for people to give input and

fight against social injustice is that these incidents will be viewed by many people. Social media

is widely used around the world as a daily form of entertainment and news. Statistics show that

2.8 billion people were using social media by the end of 2016 (Walters, 2016). Thats near 40

percent of the worlds population which is impressive considering that not all the population

owns a smartphone or computer. Also, the average person spends nearly 6 hours a day on social

media. As a result, approximately 2,190 hours a year are consumed on social media. With all the

time invested in entertaining ourselves, educational topics should be implemented to make social

media effective in a positive aspect. The news is a brilliant place to gain wisdom on current

events as well, but the rise of social media has led to an increase in the use of social media

opposed to the news. Information also reaches social media faster than the news. According to

(Laird, 2012) who gathered information from the Washington Post, Pew Research Center, and

Reuters, professional journalists use social media to break news quickly before writing up full

articles to be published in the news. With the speedy ability to distribute information to the

public, social media is the perfect way to address social injustice issues with the assurance that a

variety of people will view it. This will pave the way for anyone attempting to make a change

against social injustices, and allow them to take a stand.

While watching How we talk about sexual assault online (Wells, 2016), I gained an

interesting outlook on the utilization of social media to lecture about social injustice. Ione Wells

was a victim of sexual assault. After experiencing this tragedy, she took her story to social media
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to raise awareness about that topic. She also believed that others should consider an approach to

using social media for social justice. An advantage, that social media gives victims of social

injustice, is providing them with a voice to speak up about what they demand justice for. This is

a sacred benefit that is not offered anywhere else. Whenever an event involving social injustice

occurs, the news mentions it in a professional manner stating facts but leaving out the impact it

may have caused. However, the access of social media gives the actual victim an opportunity to

share their story and personal experience, giving viewers a first-person analysis, often involving

the emotion behind it. As Ione Wells did with her situation, social media gave the public

sympathy for her, triggering the emotions of the audience, which drives them to push for justice

of sexual abuse. Using social media to fight for social injustice gives those situations

empowerment to paint a picture of the bearing impact it had on those involved, ultimately

gaining an inch closer to making a difference.

To understand the importance of utilizing social media to fight against social injustices,

we must recognize common issues that are faced by society. Some social injustice situations

consist of civil rights, sexual assault, murder, illegal immigration, and terrorism. These are some

of the common social injustice issues that are seen almost every day in the world. When

discussing civil rights issues, segregation has accelerated rather than declined and has become

sharper, characterized by deep poverty and extremely poor conditions of life (Marshall). Even

though segregation ended years ago, racism in the world still exists, and is constantly rising. The

topic of sexual assault was mentioned previously with Ion Wells, and is a phenomenon that 1 in 6

women endure in their lifetime (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). Murder rates have

increased dramatically and the number of homicides in America alone are at 15,809 per year

(Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Illegal immigration in the United States is
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impaling, as approximately 11 million illegal immigrants are occupying the population (Marcon,

2016). Terrorism is a major concern for the world with radical Islamic terrorists attempting to

attack humanity. Numerous terrorist attacks have occurred on American soil during the past 10

years including the Boston bombing in 2013, a beheading in Oklahoma in 2014, and the shooting

of a military base in Texas in 2009, killing 14 people (Bandler, 2016). Obviously, horrific events

occur often in society and continue to worsen. There are organizations and governments putting

in efforts to minimize these incidents, but it is difficult without contributions of the people.

Social media is a virtuous way of alerting the world about these problems that are extremely

important to be aware of as it can affect our livelihood.

Aside from all the evidence supporting social media being used to fight against social

injustice, there is a slight disadvantage to that proposition. A common concern with social media

is that not all the content being displayed is factual. Anyone can put their opinion or information

online, which can be constructive, but in the wrong hands can have harmful effects. Non-

professionals are able to post information as they please. Although this gives the public a voice,

it can be manipulated to promote biased ideas. Some fake news is produced purposely by

teenagers or entrepreneurs seeking to make money, false information can also arise from

misinformed social media posts by regular people. (Maheshwari, 2016) This displays a clear

example as to why users of social media should be careful of what they read, and do further

research when learning information.

Overall, the application of social media can produce dynamic results if used correctly.

The society in which we exist in, has multiple problems, and always has room to change and

grow. Conditions of social injustice have radically arisen which directly involves the public.

Social media provides us access to gain knowledge about these incidents and allows us to
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engrave our input in ways possible to effectively reach justice. It is the quickest, most efficient

way to transfer news and information, and can have a great influence on people. If social media

is properly used, it can move mountains and reduce unjust occurrences allowing humanity to

prosper and value morality.

References

Laird, S., (2012, April) How Social Media is Taking over the News [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved

from http://mashable.com/2012/04/18/social-media-and-the-news/#PuyQMl1OvEq3

Rouse, M., (2016, September) Social Media. Retrieved from

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media

Shore, B., (2011, May) When Social Media and Social Justice Intersect. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/billy-shore/when-social-media-and-soc_b_231018.html

Walters, K., (2016, November) 125+ Essential Social Media Statistics every Marketer Should

Know. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-statistics-for-social-media-

managers/

Wells, I., (2016, June) How we talk about sexual assault online. Retrieved from

https://www.ted.com/talks/ione_wells_how_we_talk_about_sexual_assault_online#t-348849