In March book 3, we read about the impact that the media had on shining light on issues, such as police brutality, that African Americans had been facing. New anchors would cut into real footage of marches and reveal the violent advances of the police dealing with the “unlawful assembly.” The media had the impact it did because it reached all across the nation, showing what was really happening under their noses. The nation’s response was pretty immediate, demanding there be no inference of marches and then religious leaders, ministers, and priests discussed their desire to march alongside the protesters.

Social media nowadays can be very beneficial, just as it can be negative. I use social media mostly to stay in contact with friends and family I’m separated from and to capture memories that I often look back on. I can use social media to post about social issues and post GoFundMe’s for people or problems that need profit. Social media is also convenient because there are always people offering their input on social issues. Therefore, it is easy to inform yourself, typically with both sides of every topic. You can practically educate yourself on any social issue on social media by reading hundreds and thousands of other individuals’ opinions and views. Though, I think social media is also very damaging to my generation and the next. Social media apps, like Twitter where you can only use up to 140 characters per tweet makes it evidently harder to discuss nuance and complex social issues. As people try to keep informed and update their followers, many statements and views can be misinterpreted. As well as social media often beats the news. Many events that take place will often be tweeted, and posted about on Instagram and Facebook before media outlets will release more complete stories. Oftentimes, on social media when an issue is presented it may often be one-sided, or lack lots of contexts. Events often will get painted in a different light than the reality of the situation. Another way social media is negative is how endangering it can be. When protests were going on during the pandemic for police brutality, racial injustices, and LGTBQA+ issues, people would post publicly about when and where these protests were to be held. Making these protests easy targets for predators against said issues to come and disrupt the peace.

https://www.cs.odu.edu/~tkennedy/cs300/development/Public/M03-SocialMedia/index.html