I feel that social media absolutely has the potential to cause real social change in the world today. From what I have seen so far over the past few years, it appears that people are utilizing social media for good purposes and are bringing about a real social movement. This set of tools has the ability to reach such a large audience and in a very short amount of time. Social media is changing the way people collect, analyze, and distribute useful information to others around the world
One current example of how social media can inflict real social change is the Kony 2012 campaign. Kony is an African warlord accused of war crime which involves child soldiers. Jason Russell, a film maker, decided to make a video on Kony and uploaded it to YouTube. Overnight the video went viral and Kony’s name became plastered all across numerous social networking sites. Within less than a week this video had the whole world talking about Kony, and now the world is rallying together in the Kony 2012 campaign to bring awareness to and an end to war crimes in Africa. Without social media there is no way this campaign could have gotten as much attention and motivation as it did. Therefore I do believe social media is a very effective way to bring about real social change.
Social media sites allow for total freedom to make it a public matter whatever you feel you need to. The level of convenience it offers will continue to cause change in social interaction. Social media sites will only further find ways to link us to the rest of the world, only making it easier and more accessible
Another example would be the S.O.P.A act. Social media spread the word, and like a forest fire every new about it in minutes and stood against it. Making the government take back the law and re-edit it over and over again.
