This is complicated, because on the one hand I think it’s absolutely true that social media platforms are places where real community that creates real positive effects can be and often is created
And there’s also a kind of person who really thinks Posting (note the proper noun) is Activism
It’s funny cause people tell me *all the time* how they’ve learned from me and found community through my posts and been uplifted and connected to others and gotten tools to recognize and fight hate and felt less alone in the world. But I guess fuck that right? I’m not accomplishing anything.
I mean I literally almost did my doctoral dissertation on the role of Twitter and Facebook in the Iranian Green Revolution, this shit is real and I have never doubted that
And also like… we’ve all seen That Kind Of Person, and that phenomenon is something other than the above
I feel like ultimately it comes down to a kind of flattening of engagement often sourced in privilege, a perverse *lack* of understanding of how connections and community built through social media can really have power, which results in not understanding how to act effectively in context
i feel the fundamental difference is Posting For Community vs Posting For Clout (and usually the belief that one is posting for "activism" is cloutposting with an excuse)
And also, yeah, here’s a mea culpa if you want one: I have at many times put energy into screaming online that could have been better spent in other ways, because I felt scared and paralyzed and screaming online seemed easier
I think that’s a very understandable thing to do, but it’s also unhelpful
Our existence in social digital space contains many if not all of the difficulties and complexities that our existence in all other kinds of social space contains, and grasping the scope of that is not always easy
Which is to say I think both OPs are right
And I also want to encourage people to allow each other generous readings of what they say rather than assume the worst framing, I know we’re all exhausted and punchy right now but
