Class as a Pass to Online Activism

Photo by Kyle Thornburg

Irrelevant are the days when news spread like wildfire. Rare are the instances when one is separated from another by six degrees. With modernity and technological advances that keep society consistently synchronized and updated, time and space now envy the capabilities of the Internet. For the purposes of social activism, Internet set itself up as the link to complete the chain of justice.

As trial and error might have it, Internet was not the final link in the chain. While entities, such as social media, lent a viral dimension to the possibilities within activism, it simultaneously segmented American society.

In recent history, the topics of social issues have been held to a modern light on virtual platforms. However, these dialogues are negligent of demographics such as members of the lower class. In its idealized form, online activism would elevate offline forms of activism by infiltrating the otherwise unreachable corners of this nation with a plan of action, a meeting place or refute of the dominant thought.

Reality indicates that unreachable ground is, in fact, being covered. Yet the people receiving the message are not proportionate to the demographics of American identity. As the journalist Malcolm Gladwell asserts, communication of any medium manifests a centralized group and the inevitable outliers.

For social movements in contemporary American society, including discussions on gender and on race, social media has enabled the voices of a particular kind. From a study by theWashington Post in 2010, research illuminated that the most prominent groups that were flourishing via Internet presence were young Americans and women. Estranged from the data were members of low socio-economic status.

“Although online activists are younger and more likely to be women than traditional political activists, they still tend to be wealthier and better educated than the rest of the population,” the Washington Post article stated.

For women looking to partake in the advocacy for personhood online, following hashtags such as #YesAllWomen will allow the opportunity. For Americans looking to partake in the advocacy for minimum wage, following hashtags, such as #RaiseTheWage, will allow them to share testimonials of their own. In both instances, the lack of access to the middle class commonplace smart phone, tablet or laptop mutes the participation of lower class members.

Even for members of the lower class with access to social portals, their Internet literacy deters their effective contributions to the movements taking place online. Without the aptitude for navigating distinctive spheres of thought on Facebook with educated additions or the ability to pinpoint and follow hashtags on Twitter, the low-class citizen renders themselves static. Unlike a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960 where a silent placeholder at a diner spoke volumes for justice, the placeholder on social media is wasted space.

Online or offline, access is a privilege for the American citizen—Internet access included. For the lower class, this not only means they are unrepresented in the dialogues of Facebook and Twitter, it also necessitates their unawareness of utilitarian rebellion.

America’s historical social movements have filled streets, ratified discriminatory thought and earned demographics of people their national rights deemed essential by American forefathers. In the virtual world, however, activism is invitation only and the lower class is just out of America’s range of delivery.

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