I'm not going to lie, I love Facebook. I love how it allows me to connect to people from a long distance and helps me keep the friends I made since I was 10. But I also hate Facebook. I hate that we put so much emphasis and importance on this one social media that is meant to be "social" media.
As the term implies, it's a platform for socializing. But somehow, over time, it has also become a platform for change. Which is fine, because it helps bring people like me who are oblivious (and I actually prefer being oblivious) into the light of big events and important events that are happening around the world. I'm OK with that. But what I am not so OK with is when Facebook becomes the tool FOR change. What's the difference between "platform for change" and "tool for change" you ask? To me, "platform for change" means a way to bring awareness of problems around the world. "Tool for change" implies that posting a Facebook post, sharing a Facebook post, will change the world.
But will it?
Can it?
The answer: No, it can't.
How does sharing a Facebook post/status change the problems for the students at Ithaca or Mizzou or Yale? Or anywhere else in the world? If you can tell me that 1,000,000 shares of a Facebook post will stop racial inequality in a select area or country, then fine, Facebook is a tool for change. But does 1,000,000 shares change anything for the students on the campus? Nope. Sorry for bursting your bubble, but it does nothing.
Because you only have so many "friends" on Facebook. Or you might be like me, where your privacy settings are on so tight that even friends of friends cannot view what I post on my wall. So how does you posting a status on your wall, with 20+ likes show the students are the colleges that you stand by them? Just like the answers before, you can't.
The way you can show you care, and show that you stand with them, is physically. Smith College just recently had a rally of sorts and you can always find a way to actually help them out. But I fail to see how a Facebook status can change anything. It's only a platform, it cannot become a tool.
So much backlash can happen because of this post and I totally understand why. We want to show we care and the only way we can show we care nowadays is posting a status, and/or posting a picture. But we just always fail to see how that help. Will it change policies? Will it change laws? No. We have to vote, to change policies and laws. So maybe what we should be doing, is gathering up people to change laws, and change policies, so these kind of unfortunate problems that shouldn't even be happening at this time of human history can stop happening.
"To the black students at Mizzou, I, a student ally at Smith College, am with you in solidarity. To those who would threaten their sense of safety, the world is watching, and so is history."
