Social Media Made Me Woke: Social Movements in the Modern Age

Social movements have grown in popularity as the need for social change has increased among American adults. Social media has been a way for social movements to not only get started, but to gain popularity and spread information to mass numbers of people at a fast rate. Activists for various groups are able to join forces to take action against individuals or groups of people through social media networks. Previous scholars have explained this social phenomenon with three schools of thought: mobilization, techno-optimism, and techno-pessimism. Mobilization allows for the connection of people on a large technological scale. Techno-optimists believe that technology holds the answer to social problems and that it aids in the functioning of the world. Techno-pessimists see technology as the cause of the social problems that are present today and that it will be the downfall of society. These three schools of thought, along with the use of the sociological conflict theory, examine how social media is used to connect individuals on a global scale to try to solve social problems. This research will employ secondary analysis of survey data from the American National Election Studies and conduct interviews with individuals as well as with focus group to help explain the relationship between social media and social movement participation.