Zeynep Tufekci spoke at TEDGlobal 2014 Talk engaging on the topic ‘Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win’. Tufekci begins her talk by stating, “So recently we heard a lot about how social media helps empower protests, and that’s true, but after more than a decade of studying and participating in multiple social movements, I come to realize that the way technology empowers social movements can also paradoxically help weaken them. This is not inevitable, but overcoming it requires diving deep into what makes success possible over the long-term. And the lessons apply in multiple domains”. Comparing the Civil Rights Movement and the current Black Lives Matter movement, there is a big difference in speed and emotion due to the different circumstances, country’s problems and technology advancements. It seems as though now people with their phones glued to their hands can be more prone to be distracted from what the true message is for protesting. Many people make a call to protest or even attend the protest to then post about the event and be done with the protest once it’s over. For the Civil Rights Movement, there were specific leaders who made sure that the people of the movement were on the right track to get the government to change the unjust policies against people of color. Now it has become a norm for police brutality to be recorded and seen on social media and people move to the next topic very quickly than back in the 1960s.
Social media has become a huge distraction for the citizens and an advantage to spread the word/media of what is going on while protesting. Tufekci explained that she talked to many protesters and the protesters explained that they were just despairing and frustrated and they hadn’t achieved much less than what they had hoped for. It showed that the Internet was the fast route and not replacing the benefits of the slower work which would in turn bring forth gain. For example, Dave Ramsey states, “You can’t work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn’t work. Crockpot mentality always defeats the microwave mentality”. We live in a society where anything we want is handed to us if we press a few buttons on a screen. Many are accustomed to getting things fast and if there is no work put into getting it there is less likely that one may put importance to it. Social media is that fast outlet where people can immediately get their information, sex, products and media to satisfy their needs at the moment. However, these problems that we are having in America is not a quick fix action when it comes to these protests. There needs to be more importance and urgency added to have people know this is not just a regular social media post. There needs to be a border between the social media and news on social media to distribute to the people on social media more seriously. America needs to focus up on what is actually important to the well being of the country’s future and the next meme definitely isn’t as important.
Do you think social media outlets should be mandated to help people focus more on the importance of the world and less screen time on the app?
Weekly News – It is said that this election will historically have higher rejected ail in ballots than ever. This world needs prayer. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2020/10/08/rejected-mail-ballots-projected-major-factor-2020-election/3576714001/
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 
I’m not sure if mandating social media would actually help. I think sometimes we forget that social media is just a platform and that we have the choice to use it and take whatever we want from it. I think we also have to realize that these platforms have to make money, as they are businesses so there may be an agenda that they occasionally push in order to do so. I think in that aspect they should definitely be mandated better. But I think that we also need to educate ourselves better on what’s going on behind the scenes so that we can understand why and how certain things are happening or being pushed. We also have to find a way to push our agendas and follow people who have a cause rather then those who are popular or who have “clout”.
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I don’t think social media should play a role in helping people pick their priorities. People should be able to choose how they want to help in activism whether that be online or out in the street. Social media is a platform that people can use and although some people use it to much to the point where it should be considered an addiction. Other people can manage themselves and their usage. I don’t think social media should help people moderate their activities. If they did it would be complicated to enforce and It might even mean dealing with privacy issues.
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