After reading part 3 of Grown Up Digital, the part I would like to focus on is the effect networking tools have had on activism today. I am personally very conflicted on this matter, and am not sure whether I could take a solid stance on whether or not the impact it's had has been entirely positive or entirely negative.
Tapscott points out that when he was my age, activism was much more difficult to partake in, especially if you didn't live in an urban area. He said that he didn't even have access to a fax machine, and that him and whoever else was interested in getting the word out about a cause had to make flyers and post them around town. The only time they were lucky enough to partake in a protest was if there happened to be one in their town. Getting your thoughts and complaints heard was essentially all about word-of-mouth. You had to try to get in contact with a group of like-minded people who would hopefully be able to relay your message to another such group of people, and so on.
He has a very good point when he says that the internet, specifically social media gives our generation an amazing opportunity to make a change that his generation never had. While he provides numerous examples of people that are attempting to utilize this valuable resource, part of me isn't 100% sure that they aren't just exceptions to our the majority of people that make up our generation.
Most people would say without a second thought that the way advancements in technology have changed activism are nothing but a positive thing. But when I think of the activism in the 1960's, I feel as if the ties among the people partaking in it were much stronger, because it was much more of a risk, and it was something people were willing to fight for and even get in major trouble for. I'm not saying that doesn't still happen these days, but I feel as if that bond has been somewhat weakened. A lot of the time, it seems as if people just 'like' or share something on social media and that's pretty much the full extent of their activism. I don't say this to be overly critical, I say it because it's something I myself am guilty of! It's also something many of my friends are guilty of.
Back to the other side of the argument that I initially started with....It all really depends how you look at it. The fact that this information is able to be spread so easily and isn't fully controlled by the media can mean simply opening people up to a new way of thinking, or even just making people aware of political events that the news may not tell you about. Without this ability, the people who ARE out there participating in high-risk activism might not have even have the knowledge that urged them to do so! So I guess it all really comes full-circle.
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