Published by Josh Pelletier
How many times have you been on Social Media this past week, seeing content creators using their platform for dancing, stupid pranks making peoples lives a little difficult? Having a platform that can be used to create change but instead using it poorly and for selfish reasons should not be what social media is used for.
Social Media and its infinite power, should be used to create change and bring notice to causes that mean something or does work for the greater good. Let’s take a look at a cause near to mostly everyone’s hearts and it revolves around Breast Cancer.
Every October, awareness spreads for Breast Cancer and the horrible affect it has on women. Most companies during the month change colors to match the color of the ribbon the symbolizes the courageous journey that women undergo for treatment and the battle to fight this horrid disease. So during this month everyone tries taking their part bringing awareness and their support for the cause. Doing this as a form of cyberactivism, which can be challenging to see the benefit actually.
Now as said before, using social media is powerful because you can reach millions of people just by one simple post or one 10 second video. Already the awareness of Breast Cancer is nationally known, however, awareness on social media is still posted everyday. Now, discussed before each company tries taking part in the cause and to show their support for these women battling this disease.
Most people participate in these Facebook Memes that help diffuse the overall situation in the room, with all participating and adding their own form of personalization to these posts, as one trend that went around, women were posting statuses including their name and the color of the bra they were wearing at that moment. Eventually most of these posts turned sexual as well, including more participation even from men.
Did this actually help the cause at hand though? The problem that can be seen here is, even though it brings attention to cause, does campaigns or posts provide the real information as well, does it give people the wrong idea about the cause. Mostly everyone thinks only women can contract Breast Cancer, however, men can contract it as well and have died from the disease as well, but again posts like these do not give the whole story.
As well, you bring notice to the cause but is anything else happening in this. This can be explained perfectly through the second to last paragraph in the case study,
“Before creating a social media mobilization campaign, it is important to ask whether lack of awareness is the biggest challenge to the cause. Is your biggest challenge that individuals don’t know that you exist, or are they just not interested in your services? In some cases, lack of awareness is a huge issue. Nonetheless, breast cancer campaigns do little to actually spread tangible information regarding the initiative’s goals, even though these viral campaigns put great efforts into disseminating prevention and self-check information to the general public.”
Mahoney, Tang Tang 72
In cases like this, spreading out to social media, can give the awareness to the cause you choose, but is it truly effective? Would volunteering or donating to the cause be more effective than a simple post on social media, where you are sharing private personal info with strangers? At the end of the day, simply going out and doing your part will do more for the cause than a post on the internet.
Help the cause and find out ways you can help by visiting My Breast Cancer Support, website below
References
Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change. Wiley Global Research (STMS). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781118556900
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