What role do social media platforms play in shaping our forms of connectivity and social life?

Traditionally, our forms connectivity and social life were developed solely through physical contact. We have seen social change in the transition from traditional to modern societies in the way we connect socially thanks to social media. Since the rise of social media, we have seen a new category of activism named “hashtag activism”. Hashtag activism occurs when a large number of posts appear on social media under a mutual word or phrase (Yang, G 2016). One example which will be addressed throughout this essay is the #MeToo movement. To understand how hashtag activism and the #MeToo movement shape our forms of connectivity and social life, this essay will draw upon theoretical frameworks including the ‘Public Sphere’ and ‘Virtual Communities’.

The concept of hashtags were created in 2007 by Chris Messina, a former Google developer (Couts, A 2015). Messina wanted to produce a platform in which people could have organisations about specific ideas. The platform which Messina created in 2007, resulted in the reason for hashtag activism’s existence and it’s prominence throughout social media today. The power of hashtag activism is huge in comparison to earlier digital activism methods. Earlier examples took place in electronic bulletin boards or news-groups (Gurak, L 1999), and although would still successfully reach an audience, it would not be the large scale which Twitter is able to reach. Adding a hashtag sign in front of a word makes it easier for users on Twitter to interact, link and search with each other via the hash tagged word (Yang, 2016). There is however, a difference between everyday hash tags on Twitter and influential hashtag activism. Cases of hashtag activism must encompass a recognizable narrative form with a beginning, crisis/conflict and an end (Clark, R 2016).

Originating in 2006, the #MeToo movement was founded by Tarana Burke to spread awareness and understanding of sexual assault. However, it wasn’t until almost a decade later that it went viral after multiple celebrities tweeted their stories of sexual harassment using #MeToo hashtag (Xiong, Y et al. 2018). This led women worldwide to retweet and share these stories and in turn, started an international conversation about sexual violence. The hashtag #MeToo, brought together people from all walks of life who shared one thing in common. They had been affected or someone they know had been affected by sexual violence. The coming together of these people with the use of a hashtag as the primary source to raise awareness encouraging debate via social media shows the power which hashtag activism can have.

The 'Public Sphere’ was a term coined by Habermas which defined where “private people come together as a public” to broaden critical knowledge in turn, leading to political change (Kruse, L et al. 2017). Political and social issues of the public are debated and used to create a public opinion and requires unrestrained access to data, equal and protected participation without the influence of institutional organisations. Habermas suggested that in modern society, the ‘citizen role’ is being overtaken by the ‘consumer role’. Meaning, the public consumes culture rather than debates it (Edwards, G 2011). However, with the rise of social media it is possible that the historical idea of the public sphere can be fortified. Social media provides unlimited access to data as well as equal and protected participation on various platforms. The internet is accessible to most and in theory, anyone can distribute content, which makes both participation and information acquirement free from institutional influence (Kruse, L et al. 2017).

Social media sites such as Twitter can revitalize the idea of the public sphere. Twitter is free to use, can be accessed just by having an email account and an internet connection. By sharing on Twitter, users can share information outside the influence of mass media by providing “access, participation, reciprocity and peer-to-peer rather than one to many communication” (Jenkins, H 2006). With the help of social media, people no matter what their age, gender, social status etc can connect and contribute to political discussion. By using the hashtag, #MeToo, Twitter users are able to debate about their personal thoughts and stories surrounding the social issues of sexual abuse. The interaction between people on the Twitter platform (reading, retweeting, commenting) using the #MeToo hashtag, is

a real-life example of a restored public sphere by the use of hashtag activism.

The #MeToo hashtag sparked a large worldwide conversation which saw a rise of feminist activism utilizing social media to create public discourse and social change (Xiong, Y et al. 2018). This growth of conversation can be seen as the political change and conversation which a public sphere requires.

Since the rise of modernity, sociality, or forms or social organisation and ways of being together have developed quite significantly. In previous generations, individuals would live in small villages and would know majority of people in the town on a personal level (Siapera, E 2012). Close knit communities were established by face-to-face contact in the earlier form of social organisation. We have now seen a shift from traditional communities towards impersonal societies with the rise of modernity and age of the internet. Howard Rheingold, an American sociologist argues that the internet and new media breathes life into a new form of community (Siapera, E 2012). This somewhat ‘new and improved communities’ he named ‘Virtual Communities’. Rheingold defined virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (1993).

Virtual communities come together irrespective of geographic location and without the requirement of face-to-face contact which was once, all that existed. They are based on social shared practices and interests whereas physical communities are based on social and physical shared boundaries (Katz et al 2004). This allows for individuals to associate with likeminded people, expressing their identities without distress of segregation therefore escaping the boundaries of local communities. Twitter and other social media sites are used to form virtual communities which are scattered across the country or even the world, who communicate via computer about subjects of common interest. Members within these virtual communities’ form social relationships, exchanging advice, resources, get emotionally involved and although true identities are hidden, some people may meet and interact in real life (Brym et al. 2012, pg. 93).

Drawing back to the #MeToo movement as an example, it is easier to pinpoint how these virtual communities are created and offer such a powerful form of sociality. The creation of the #MeToo movement hashtag on Twitter saw groups of likeminded people from all over the globe come together to communicate about a matter of interest. These people who had possibly not wanted to express their identities in their local communities, used Twitter to reinforce social change and spread the message of their experiences surrounding sexual violence. Although the #MeToo movement on Twitter may of started with a celebrity tweet, this virtual community is not influenced by mass media or governmental control meaning it contributes to the restoration of the public sphere and also the growth of online democracy (Siapera, E 2012).

There are many roles which social media play in shaping our forms of connectivity and social life as we have transitioned from traditional societies into modern society. As discussed in this essay, some forms of connectivity are through the reinvigoration of the Public Sphere and the creation of virtual communities. Hashtag activism, more specifically, the #MeToo movement without the influence of the mass media, has contributed to the reinvigoration of the Public Sphere. The #MeToo hashtag activism movement has also created a virtual community where a collective of people who come together share ideas and communicate on social media. These two examples display how social media has arguably brought us closer together and has altered the way in which we connect and socialise.

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