Between different generations, the conversation about social media often navigates towards a typical direction: social media is bad and is having an extremely detrimental effect on the rising generations, along with social media users of all ages. Now I agree that it is clearly visible when you are observing restaurant-goers absorbed by their smartphones on social media or the amount of data my little brother can go through in a week, just by keeping up with his accounts. But what about the good social media has brought to the world?
I'm sure many of you have been coming across an abundance of articles, opinions, videos, images, etc. on your social media accounts about the Stanford sexual assault case. As much sympathetic grief I experience while reading about this horrible tragedy, I am grateful that social media is actually catalyzing this conversation. Many teens and young adults today don't even read or watch the news, but rather take to social media to keep them aware. I hate to label the victim's hardship as a "trending topic" on social media, but thank goodness it is! This is not a situation to be dubbed as "trending" and I loathe that it takes an atrocity like this to catalyze this conversation, but in the same breath, this girl who we all now hold in our hearts has awoken the world.
We are ignorant creatures of action-and-response. It's sickening, but the truth is we do not naturally anticipate matters and take them into our hands for active prevention. We are always too late. It takes something happening to produce change in this horrific world. I feel my stomach collapsing, imagining what she went through, and continues to battle as this crime resurfaces. But know, we are standing with you.
You are brave, as you embrace this conversation, even though it causes you to be reminded of what no person should relive, let alone experience in the first place. We will not allow you to be simply a "trending topic." You are producing the change we wish to see in this world. The harsh reality is "every two minutes an American is sexually assaulted." Women, girls, men, and boys.
We need to ride this wave social media has presented. We cannot allow this to become a topic of the past, something people mention in passing, or scroll past on their feed. She is now the voice and hero of any innocent victim of sexual assault. We need to fix the problem. This cannot keep happening.
Speak up! This overdue conversation has finally started and desperately needs to be talked about. This isn't only happening on college campuses, but unfortunately the percentage of completed or attempted rape victims among women in college is between 20 percent and 25 percent. Talk about this at your campuses. Talk about this outside of college campuses too. Inform your friends. Don't allow questionable commentary by your friends to go unnoticed. Take action! Never allow yourself to be simply a witness if someone is in danger. Step in!
I am sick of living in a world where girls constantly feel unsafe. Sober or drunk, no woman should feel she cannot get gas too late at night because she might be attacked. No woman should feel she needs to constantly have a male with her to protect her from assault. No woman should have to live in a world where she cannot let her drink out of her hand because someone might slip something into it to take advantage of her. No woman should be told her decision to drink that night (just like the men around her) ultimately handed herself over to sexual assault. No woman should ever be told it was her fault.
The conversation has started. We may be creatures of action-and-response, but we are not creatures of action-and-dismissal. We may be too late for the brave victim but it is not too late to prevent this in the future. Start talking, start informing, start intervening. Put an end to this form of identity-murder.
