Social Media Pre-Conference Post

Think of the norms of society as a moving sidewalk. When I intentionally go along with what society wants from me, I walk or run along the human conveyor belt. When I do not act either with or against the norms of society, I am simply standing still on the sidewalk, and still moving along with the norms of society. Change only comes with a purposeful challenging of the norm. I must be marching against the norm, the moving sidewalk. Similarly, social media must purposefully be used for social change, for challenging the norm if change is going to happen in the first place. Whether this includes posting blogs and articles on my facebook and twitter to raise the awareness of my friends to issues I find important OR if it's making multiple PSAs on women's rights with youth from around the world, people's minds can be questioned and opened with an interactive world. I believe the most important social change occurs when youth interact with each other using social media because it is the youth who are specifically interested and captivated by the possibilities of social media. When I was involved with the 3rd Intl Youth Media Summit the summer of 2006 in Serbia, the youth from around the world stayed connected, organized joint campaigns around the world and interacted through facebook and blogs.