The role of twitter and the hashtag in the #BlackLivesMatter movement (final post week 3)

It would be hard for anyone to still be oblivious to social justice movement that has recently gained strength and publicity in our country.  The #BlackLivesMatter movement began after the killing of Trayvon Martin in Orlando, FL in 2012. After the events occurring in Ferguson, the movement received nationwide attention from mainstream media sources and the topic was commonly discussed in public and private spaces all over our country.   The unfortunate reality is that a number of situations have continuously occurred in the time since the founding of this movement, namely between police and black communities and individuals.

It is noteworthy that the name of the movement is written with a hashtag at the beginning.  On the webpage of the organizers of the movement the homepage identifies the name of the movement with a hashtag at the beginning.

Image taken from https://wikimedia.org/ and used with Creative Commons licensing

A short selection of the hashtags that the movement has produced include the following: #blacklivesmatter, #handsupdontshoot, #heisnotasuspect, #ferguson, #thisstopstoday, #icantbreathe, #alivewhileblack and most recently following the suspect death in policy custody of acitivist Sandra Bland the newest hashtag #ifidieinpolicecustody.  For those interested, this article powerfully discusses the topic and shows some of the tweets using this hashtag.

Without steering this into a political discussion, I think there is a peripheral lesson that can be learned from the way the use of social media to drive the movement has spread like wildfire.  What I mean to say is that the prominent role of social media (especially Twitter and Instagram) in this movement (as well as many, many others such as the funding drive for ALS or the Arab Spring to name a few) can provide us a reminder of the prominence and power of social media in our lives and especially in the younger generations' lives.  It provides a forum for mass dissemination of information, commentaries, and perspectives unfiltered by other sources.  Many claim that it was precisely the power of the many voices in social media that pressured mainstream media to take the movement seriously and cover the stories coming out of various US cities.  This serves as another reminder of how Web 2.0 resources are shaping our lives and the direction of history.