Blog Posting 3

When thinking about how social media can create awareness among a mass of people about political revolution and social events and actually create change, I always come to wonder how simply liking, commenting, or sharing can move people in a way that makes them went to help make a change also how any of the media gathered from social media would be able to influence political revolution. For example if someone were to post a donation link to their facebook and/or twitter for breast cancer etc. does their "like" or comment really make a difference when it comes to the cause, or is it a way for someone to feel like they are helping out someone by giving them false support through a computer screen. I find that when you look at a lot links through facebook and twitter they may have a lot of likes or retweets, but once you actually reach the donation page it seems that a lot of people are just going through their newsfeed blindly "liking" posts without actually committing their attention to the real website where you can make donations and make a real life difference. I personally don't think that people with certain political views can make an actual change in politics just by posting a few tweets or articles through their social media because no one (at least myself) takes those kind of posts seriously unless I am getting information from a reliable source. Although I do see a lot of celebrities with millions of followers post their political views and/or social views some may just be tweets or links but others are motivated to make a change and get people to join their cause by providing their support through social media. Social media can be a very useful tool for people who have lots of followers as it is beneficial to creating awareness as people may repost your links and share with their other friends that use social media. I really loved the example that the professor gave on KONY and how not only teenagers that use social media but people from all different demographics were thinking that they were making a difference by just liking and sharing with their followers because it obviously didn't make a real difference although it did create awareness which is technically better than nothing. There is a lot of examples like the one that was provided whether it be social or political people think that using social media as a way to make a change in the world is a far stretched idea but it could possibly work in smaller social groups rather than a revolution or a change in society. I'm sure majority of us have liked something on our social media in relation to creating awareness for medical illnesses and have not gone through with what the post is originally asking for, for example donations, it may seem like a bad thing but I find that there are thousands of organizations using social media to gain attention from people all over the world, it is a good idea although as I stated previously many people don't get involved other than "liking" the posts which gives people a false sense of accomplishment.