then and now: from offline to online activism

I’ve always been fascinated about how technology changes the way people interact and how society worked. More specifically, it’s fascinating to think about how technology like social media has affected activism – especially the viral qualities embedded in the mechanisms of social media.

To explore this, I want to take a look at the one of the earlier student movements, the Greensboro Sit-Ins in 1960, and then take a look at a more contemporary one which is social media based: the #MeToo movement

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Greensboro Sit-Ins, February 1960

Taken by The New Yorker's staff photographer Platon (online image taken from Britannica.com)

The Greensboro Sit-Ins is one of the earliest student protests in history, which led to many other civil rights protests and movements. According to History.com, the movement was to protest segregation in public eating spaces, as at the time African Americans were not allowed to eat in the sit-in counters.

To protest this, four young men: Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil (aka the Greensboro Four) who were students of North Caroline Agricultural and Technical State University at the time, sat at their local Woolworth’s lunch counter and refused to leave until they were given service. The goal, of course, wasn’t to get the service – it was to get the media’s attention and create public pressure on Woolworth’s to desegregate.

This act did in fact get media’s attention, and as a result the number of demonstrators grew rapidly. The Greensboro Four brought in more friends from college, and once the first Woolworth’s sit-in counter was full, the movement was replicated in other public eating spaces in Greensboro. Then, as you probably have expected, the movement spread to many different cities and different states.

The #MeToo Movement, founded in 2006

Photo: Sarah Morris / Getty Image

The #MeToo movement was started with the goal of empowering survivors of sexual violence through finding their communities and reclaiming their voices. It also serves to show the world the size of this problem. The idea is: survivors are all around us, you’re just unaware of them and there are more than you think.

According to the official Me Too website, the movement originally created as a local grass-root effort by Tarana Burke, a sexual harassment victim and an activist. Its original platform was MySpace. However, the campaign blew up after an actress, Alyssa Milano, sent out a tweet using the #MeToo hashtag in support of the movement.

Screenshot from Twitter, Oct 29 2019

The hashtag #MeToo went viral as an aftermath and went global. Different countries were using it and translating it to their own native language. As of right now, the #MeToo movement occurs frequently in conversations both online and offline. Although it is not strictly a student movement, it is a movement that many students in the world participate in, especially in social media.

The two movements, by the numbers

According to History.com and History Learning Site:

• over 300 people participated in the sit-ins at Greensboro Woolworth's

• over 70,000 people took part in the overall movement

• By the end of March (so within a month), the movement has spread to 55 different cities in 13 states, including the more northern states like Ohio and Nevada

This is a sizable number of participants, if you consider that internet was not as accessible as right now and there was no easy way to mobilize large numbers of people. Therefore, the movement had to be really simple in concept, and easy to replicate. Anything that required complex coordination simply would have been too hard to execute without the current communication platforms.

The #MeToo movement numbers demonstrates the incredible power of social media and online activism. According to Social Media HQ, within 24 hours from Alyssa Milano’s tweet, there were:

• 68,000 people replied to Milano’s tweet

• More than 4.7 million people worldwide used the hashtag online.

• According to Facebook, there were 12 million posts, comments and likes generated on this topic.

And some other after-effects:

• Within a year, 19 million tweets with the #MeToo hashtag (USA Today)

• Pew Research Center interviewed over 4,000 social media users and found out that 65% of U.S. adults regularly see sexual harassment-related content online.

These are crazy numbers that we should not ignore. We might notice that there are significantly more people involved in the #MeToo movement than the Greensboro’s sit-ins if you’re looking at just the numbers. The reach was also wider, as it had a worldwide impact. However, I think it’s important to realize that the extent of commitment from these “participants” may also differ.

How are these two similar?

The role of media: The movement both rely on having many people advocating for the movement to have their voices be heard. Both needed to capture media’s attention, and both made tangible change in their respective causes. What’s different about them is how the word spread, and how people were participating.

Simple message: Moreover – the key of success to any movement or campaigns is to have a catchy, simple message. Like I mentioned earlier, the Greensboro’s protest was easy to execute and didn’t require crazy coordination. The #MeToo movement possessed similar qualities – the hashtag is short and simple, and the message resonated with many people.

Impactful: Most importantly, both movements caused change. The Greensboro’s movement put enough pressure on dining facilities that by the summer of 1960, segregation was no longer present in public eating spaces. It also ignites other civil rights movement and activities.

The #MeToo movement also brought some light on very high-profile cases (such as the Harvey Weinstein case) and according to USA Today, caused some legal changes that helped the cause, such as states banning NDAs that covers sexual harassment. More than anything, it helped redefined the narratives surrounding sexual harassment and power dynamics in society.

What’s different?

Spreading the word: For the Greensboro’s sit ins, they succeeded in capturing media’s attention because the movement was disruptive and public. They enlisted the help of a local businessman, Ralph Jones, who alerted the media of the movement. To participate, people needed to physically go out there and sit in one of those counters and commit their time to it. That’s a significant barrier that deters people from participating.

#MeToo’s movement didn’t need someone to ensure that the media captures the movement. They were already posting on media itself – and arguably on platforms that have the widest, most global reach out of all. Yes, the more “formal” media soon picked up on the news, but the movement didn’t need them. Social media was enough.

Participation: In terms of participation, there is no wonder that the number is higher than Greensboro’s. All participants need to do is to type in a tweet with the hashtag, or even as simple as sharing a post related to the movement. 1 second click of a button, and they’ve participated in sharing the word. It’s definitely a lot less commitment than physically sitting at public eating spaces and receiving nasty glares and swears from the local people.

Pros and cons of using social media to further activism

The pros:

Like how I mentioned repeatedly throughout this post, social media is amazing in spreading the word. Things go viral, and it allows access and participation like no other platform. And the barrier to entry is so low that it encourages participation. It encourages people to participate in a level that they are comfortable with – starting from sharing a post to joining a march (the traditional way of activism).

It also provides an avenue for people to ease into a movement and makes activism less intimidating. You don’t need to be a part of a student organization to participate. Online activism is one way of utilizing social media “productively”

The cons:

The ease of participation is a double-edged sword. First of all, the low barrier to entry means that people are not always educated about the subject before participating. We can see this through the controversy surrounding the #MeToo movement. On one of the episodes of The Daily podcast, they discussed how people have argued against the #MeToo movement, claiming that it “has gone too far” and allowed people to falsely accuse men of sexual harassment, destroying lives as a result.

While I don’t know how valid that claim is, I do agree that social media activism allows for more “extreme” voices to be heard, and the sharing of misinformation which can fuel activism the wrong way. Back during Greensboro’s times, I would imagine people would tend to understand the context behind a certain cause before committing their time to support it.

Nowadays, it is dangerously easy to participate that I might not even bother reading up about it before sharing something. And when a lot of people do this, then I have seen cases where people dismiss activism and label those who speak up as “social justice warriors,” which does the opposite of having their voices be taken seriously.

A meme I found online that portrays what netizens think of the so-called "social justice warriors"

Moreover, the ease of participating means that people are less inclined to actually go out there and do something to change it. When people feel like they’ve “participated” and have done their share through liking/sharing a post, and that’s the extent of their activism, then we might want to take a look at the crazy traction of the #MeToo movement in a more skeptical way. How many of those 4.7 million who used the hashtag online actually committed more than a simple post/tweet? How many actually pushed for change? It could be that the number is similar to that of Greensboro’s.

How to participate in online activism more effectively

• Read up and educate yourself before sharing and participating in online discourse to ensure a productive and informed conversation

• To further a campaign, online participation is not enough. Think about different ways you can push for the cause in your life outside of the internet.

• Listen to the arguments of the “other side” to be more informed and objective in your cause – and this is easy to do with social media!