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Geoffrey Liskoff

English 102

Professor Padgett

4/03/2017

How Social Media has and will continue to affect the way we Think and Act

Through out the last century it can be seen that children and adults are beginning

to rely on social media to find out information about what is going on in the world.

However, these social mediums have given people the ability to communicate with each

other around the world at any given time of the day. Being able to communicate and find

out information so easily has led to many people becoming offended online when

someone says or posts something that they do not believe in. Although, social mediums

such as twitter and Facebook were created so people could share what they are doing and

what they believe in, it can be seen that these mediums can promote and encourage

people to behave and commit actions that can be violent towards others. The coming

together of people after the influence of social media has negative and positive acts such

as rioting, protesting, and supporting others.

Riots, which are violent public gatherings, occur all over the world for multiple

reasons, whether it is police brutality or a corrupt government mistreating its citizens. It

can be seen that in the last century there had been multiple riots in the U.S. concerning

the way police officers handled situations involving citizens. With that being said, it can

be seen that social media has led to the increase and promotion of riots breaking out over

the country, as Bonilla Yarimar tells us, Social movements have long used media and

technology to disseminate, escalate, and enlarge the scope of their struggles (Ferguson
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7). One instance that got a lot of publicity on social media was the death of Michael

Brown in Ferguson Missouri, in 2014. Many people became upset about the

circumstances surrounding Michaels death as a white police officer shot him and killed

him, a black citizen, after believing that he robbed a convenience store. The social media

world became enraged by this leading to many trending hashtags such as #Ferguson,

#BlackLivesMatter, and #PoliceBrutality. As it all occurred You could read what

protestors were tweeting, what journalists were reporting, what the police was

announcing, and how observers and analysts in- terpreted the unfolding events

(Ferguson 7) which allowed people to begin arguing and supporting the side of the story

that they felt was just. As this word of what happened to Brown spread across the

internet and television many people became enraged, even to the point where they took

action a year later on August 9th 2015, which is the anniversary of the shooting. On this

anniversary people began firing guns at police officers and resulted in a man being

critically injured. However, just like the game telephone that we all played as kids in

which a person passes on a story from one another to see how much it changes, social

media allowed many stories to be created about the death of Michael Brown. What

happened as a result to the original Ferguson shooting is just what Joseph Uscinski

describes as he tells us, People who absorb inaccuracies will sometimes believe them

and, worse, act on them (Fake News Freakout 1). It could be seen that the murder of

the unarmed black teen by a police officer was publicized immensely through social

media.

Social Media also allows for major or significant events to gain light and allow

people the chance to express how they feel about something happening. An example of
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this could be when someone passes away in a small community or when something

happens to a significant person to a group of people. Social media allows for people to

express their sorrows and opinions toward event like this happening. Just as Dmitriy

Brandies tells us in his article Social Media: Bringing People Together, Virtually and

Physically, social media will, and have, brought us closer together as a society by

increasing our communication with each other and understanding of each other with

respect to greater society and culture (1), we can see through many examples, one being

the gory death of beloved American Journalist James Foley. James Foley was an

American Conflict Journalist who was captured by ISIS in Syria. After being held

captive for months ISIS finally released a video to the public of this American being

beheaded. Significant situations like this, or like 9/11, allow Americans to come together

and pay their respects to the brave loved ones that were lost and social media plays a

huge factor in that. The extent that to where websites can be made honoring people to

even when you can reach out to those who lost family and friends and give them your

condolences or donate to help them. Social Media can allow people to make a difference

in peoples lives that they wouldnt have known about or ever seen with out the use of it.

Just as we can see social media causing damage, we can also see it bring out the

best of people. This was clearly seen through out the UK after the death of Mark

Duggan, who was shot and killed by a police officer in 2011. At first, however, it was all

rioting, to the point where The British Home Secretary Theresa May said social media

have been used to co-ordinate criminality and stay one step ahead of the police

(Behind the news 2). It could be seen that through out England citizens were using social

media sites such as twitter to communicate where police would and wouldnt be in order
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to riot, protest, and cause as much damage as possible. As awful as is to have this

happen, social media also allowed for the many citizens to form together and reclaim

their communities as a citizen army armed with brooms organized itself with the help of

Twitter (#riotcleanup) and Facebook in order to reclaim and clean the streets of London

(Behind the News 385). Although social media encouraged rioting and destruction at

first, soon enough it allowed good people to come together and organize a group in order

to clean up and protect their communities.

As more and more significant events can be seen and talked about on social

media, one major question is raised. Is it safe for children to be on the social networks

and to be learning of these awful events and riots that are promoted from social media

use? Aditi Hajirnis tells us in his article, Social Media Networking: Parent Guidance

Required, of how children use social media as a version of self-expression such as

artwork, music, and political views. It can serve as a place to hang out with friends

(6). Although this may be true and can be a great way for children to express themselves,

we can only wonder if they should be experiencing and talking about some of the things

we hear and see on the news. Aditi later goes on to say in his article that Facebook was

created to be used by kids 11 years of age and older. This only makes me wonder how

many kids under age have access to the sight, because when I was younger I personally

signed up for the sight underage, saying that I was born in 1991 instead of 1997.

Although I used the sight more for publicity and to talk with friends, I still had access to

all the major events and stories happening around the world, many of which I personally

was not ready to know or hear about, such as political debates and terrorist attacks around

the world.
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As technology continues to grow we can see more and more instances rise up

around the world, and in some instances even in the places we call home. This occurred

for my friends and I when the police brutality riots broke out in Charlotte, North

Carolina. Being from Fort Mill South Carolina, I have always lived about 20 minutes

out from Charlotte and claimed it as my home, just as everyone else from my town did.

The riots occurred after father of seven, Keith Lamont Scott was fatally shot outside of

his condominium complex after not putting down a handgun when instructed by police

officers. Yaron Steinbach tells us that A second night of police-protest rioting turned

bloody in Charlotte, NC, Wednesday, with one civilian on life support after being shot by

another civilian (Fiery Rage in NC 1). This held a huge impact on the community as

everyone realized what was happening in our own community. I personally witnessed a

number of people from Fort Mill drive up to Charlotte and actively participate in the riots

by vandalizing properties and even fighting other citizens and officers. Just before all

these people, many of which who I follow on social media networks and know

personally. From the ones who were from my high school I witnessed many take to

social media and join in on the online protests by posting their opinions and arguing with

those who disagreed. These online interactions actually led to a couple fights and

altercations at school the next day. This was the first time I witnessed social media affect

my community first hand.

When people are given the ability to connect with others, we can sometimes see

immediate affect in what people do and the actions they take. There so many social

media sites as they, Any Web Site that allows social interaction is considered a social

media site, including social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter;
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gaming sites and virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Second Life, and the Sims; video

sites such as YouTube; and Blogs (Clinical Report 1) can allow anyone to connect

around the world in a matter of seconds. The few actions that we talked about earlier are

some of many that are taken due to what people say or discuss on social media sites.

Although the actions can either benefit or harm individuals or groups there is a direct

correlations of the actions with social media usage.

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Work Cited

Bonilla, Yarimar, and Jonathon Rosa. "#Ferguson." American Ethnologists, 2015. Web.

<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/store/10.1111/amet.12112/asset/

amet12112.pdf?

v=1&t=iznes9cw&s=1032ef6a51542baa85307b9480438365de3a3929>.

Uscinski, Joseph E. "FAKE NEWS FREAKOUT." Academic Search Complete, n.d. Web.

Fuchs, Christian. "BEHIND THE NEWS Social Media, Riots, and Revolutions." Uppsala

University, n.d. Web.

Steinbach, Yaron . "Fiery rage in NC Civilian shot in riot over man slain by cops." N.p.,

22 Sept. 2016. Web.

Brandeas, Dmitriy. "Social Media: Bringing People Together, Virtually and Physically."

DmitriyKozlov. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

"Clinical ReportThe Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents,

and Families." American Academy of Pediatrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May

2017.

<http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/127/4/800.full

.pdf>.