Artistic Activism

Before social media and the rise of technology used to communicate, activism was demonstrated through protests, rallies, parades, tabling, volunteering, lobbying, and other physical events that took place in order to create a change in society. Today all of these events still occur but social media activism is now used to help contribute to these changes.  An activist is someone who vigorously campaigns in order to create a political or social change. Social media activism is a sort of new age form of activism where people can campaign through social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook in order to spread the word about causes they are concerned about in hopes of creating political or social change.

There have been many examples of activism that have taken place and created change due to use of social media, including the #Kony2012 campaign, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Egyptian revolution. Social media played a giant role in these movements by allowing thousands to efficiently organize events, spread the word about their cause, and gain support from those across the world.

But how can art relate to social media activism? Some of you may remember the tsunami in Japan that happened in 2011, killing more than 18,000 people. On twitter, the hashtag #prayforjapan began to circulate and became a key source for those across the world to donate money and provide resources to those suffering in Japan. Many artists wrote songs and other forms of art for this disaster, and donated the money that was earned from their artwork to relief groups to help those that were affected by the tsunami.

I personally believe that becoming a social media activist and creating artwork for certain events would be a great way to not only support the movements that you believe in, but you can also share your artwork and donate the money that you earn to the organizations that are involved in helping these campaigns. By creating artwork that will help benefit the movements that you believe in and by campaigning for these political or social changes on your social media, you will help make a difference in the world while also creating a positive image for yourself. Social media activism will not only help you gain recognition as an artist, but you will have also made a positive impact on the world, and there's no greater feeling than that.