Avantika PaulTwo words, recently, moved millions of women on social media across the world to share their stories of having faced sexual harassment. The '#metoo' campaign was started on Twitter by sexual abuse victim and actress Alyssa Milano in the hope to raise awareness about the matter by bringing out the magnitude of this problem.
Unfortunately, the magnitude turned out to be too much for people to believe. Ergo, the campaign lost its colour before making any impact.
Much ado about something that leads to nothing is how social media activism has come to be. Another reason why it is unable to make a difference is the differences that people choose to focus on rather than the problem itself. Carrying from the #metoo instance, many people discarded the campaign saying that it is unfair to put rape and cat-calling under the same umbrella, not realizing that the purpose was to create empathy through inclusiveness, not to differentiate on the basis of magnitude.
Only women with access to Internet and at least basic education were able to come out with their stories. Countless women across the globe who are underprivileged, go through sexual abuse without even knowing that something that can be done against it. That alone should have provoked thoughts on how our society treats its women. Instead, seeing everyone write #metoo on their profiles, people started questioning the validity of the confessions. After all, it was impossible to believe that every other women they know has gone through this. Ironic, is it not?
The most a social media campaign may have done in the recent past is mobilise a crowd into a march for a cause. Mobilisation is a concern for governments and that is only how far the activism lasts. In Kashmir, multiple WhatsApp and Facebook groups were blocked because they were propagating anti-military feelings amongst Kashmiris and calling them out to streets to engage in violence.
There lies hope that if social media activism can be powerful enough to scare governments into curbing mobilisation, then it may one day trigger it to make some positive changes to the system. Are the problems we are facing with online activism any different from the ones with activism in general? Both lack filter on the content and participation. So, if a group of people decide to reach out to other groups of the same opinion to demand something, there is no reason to put a stop to it.
Although, none of the social media campaigns in history have made a significant difference. In The Structure of Online Activism, a study conducted by Sociological Science, the majority of people who like a Facebook page in support of a cause do not follow up with a donation. People find this medium comfortable to put their opinions out for scrutiny in but the vastness of it dilutes any other form of movement for them. We will end up in a rather stagnant position if we confine activism to social media's realms.
