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Internet Activism
The current world is in the middle of a digital revolution. The social media has transformed the world. The use of the internet has greatly contributed to this transformation of the world. The internet provides the ability for people to connect instantly with strangers, family, and friends. The internet has also transformed the creation and maintenance of relationships. In addition, it has changed the very structure of our social fabric. Researchers have concluded that on the societal level, the use of the social media through the internet generates unprecedented opportunities for the flow of information, social influence, affective expression and the democratic revolution (Beatriz Da Costa 12). This illustrates that the new tools of the social media have brought about social activism. This is seen through the last two decades, the people around the world have become more and more aware of and fascinated in expanding the use of digital technologies, mobile phones, computers, and other devices that use the internet for the battle of social change. Journalists, scholars, researchers, students, bloggers, activists and corporations have studied how the internet use has accelerated the level of activism in the world. The internet has increased political, economic and social activism globally. For instance, politically the USA President Barak Obama used the internet in his campaigns to inspire volunteers and voters to win the election in his first term in office.

The social media stories from Middle East people broadcasting terrorism videos through the YouTube and updating the world through twitter illustrates the social activism through the internet. Several business organizations and companies use the internet to purchase and sell products to consumers. This aspect illustrates the use of the internet to increase economic activism in the world (Lewis, Gray and Meierhenrich 6). This paper aims at arguing that the internet has resulted to increased internet activism in political, social and economic arenas as witnessed across the world today.
Despite the fact that researchers and scholars have written on the relationship between the use of the internet and the civic engagement of groups and individuals, the empirical literature of internet activism is extremely scarce. The internet is the recent technological addition of devices used by activists to communicate, raise awareness and destabilize. The internet as a new medium has numerous capabilities as a device to change. The internet is an instant, transpatial and a multilateral device that involves numerous participants and connects various activist groups at the same time. The connectedness and inclusiveness of various activist groups through the internet has a big implications on the values of community, democracy and collective identity (Reddick 17).
The internet has increased the political activism by transforming the nature of politics. The internet has the potential store and retrieve data, thus destroying the monopoly of knowledge which the government always hold. The internet politics always issue focused, allowing the politicians with like-minded and do not have a physical space to congregate social and political communities formulating a new form of online democracy and consolidating an identity where the internet is the power. The political activism through the internet is of two categories that include internet activities which support real-life activity and internet activity which could be categorized as a protest (Reddick 18). The internet activities that support real-life activities include websites that informs and instructs protestors on locations and time of the protests. The protestors use the internet to report on the real-life activity. This increases the internet activism globally. The activity categorized as a protest takes place in the form of “hacktivism” and messaging (Denning 269).
The use of the internet to change politics globally influence numerous social changes in our communities today. The internet use influences how people relate and communicate in the society. The internet enables instant connections with members of the same and different societies, hence influencing the manner in which they share information regarding various issues affecting the society. This aspect has dramatically increased the social activism across the society in the world. The use of the internet influence the changes of the numerous social changes witnessed in the society today. The people use the internet to create awareness of various issues affecting the community (Beatriz Da Costa 14). For instance, the internet helps community activists to create awareness on security issues affecting the members of the community. It makes it possible for individuals to meet on the cyberspace with easy and strategize on ways to control insecurity through the internet. The internet has lead to the emergence and use of various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Whatsapp.
These social media platforms use the internet to help individuals and corporations to socialize. The platforms increases the social activism in the society through the manner people communicate and relate through them. Activists such as the human rights activists use these media platforms to create awareness of the human rights in the society. They connect with various human rights groups through the internet and discuss on how to create awareness of the human rights hence increases social activism in the world. Protestors also use the social media platforms that use the internet to connect and communicate on how to handle any arranged demonstration in the society. Therefore, the internet has dramatically increased social and political activities in the world, influencing both negative and positive changes in the society (Beatriz Da Costa 21). Positively the internet saves activists time and space when carrying out their aims and objectives throughout the world. The internet also provides activists with the broad amount of knowledge and ideas on how to carry out protest demonstrations in real time from various places in the world. Negatively, the internet activism has killed the morals in the society where people meet and perform immorality through the use of the various media platforms that use the internet. This immorality includes acting pornography and broadcasting it online using the internet (Beatriz Da Costa 23).
The internet has also increased economic activism globally. The internet allows activists to raise funds through the internet to enable them carry out their activities through the internet. The internet has increased terrorism activities because it enables the terrorists to raise funds online to enable them recruit other members across the world. The use of internet has increased economic status of protestors by giving them opportunities where they raise money through various online activities that helps them generate money. Therefore, the internet use generates income for activists enabling them to carry out various activities online through various social media platforms (Reddick 19).
In conclusion, the use of internet has influenced various social, political and economic activities globally. The use of the internet has greatly contributed to this revolution of the world. The internet gives the ability for people to connect instantly with strangers, family, and friends. The internet has also transformed the creation and maintenance of relationships. The internet has enabled the change of political activities online, social responsibilities of the people in the society and the economic status of people and groups in the world. The internet has also influenced the society, both negatively and positively in terms of the activities it supports online. Therefore, internet activism has influenced people’s life directly or indirectly globally (Lewis, Gray and Meierhenrich 7).
Work Cited
Beatriz Da Costa, Kavita Philip. Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience. New York : MIT Press, 2010. Document .
Denning, Dorothy E. “Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism:The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy.” Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy (2007): 239-288. document.
Lewis, Kevin, Kurt Gray and Jens Meierhenrich. “The Structure of Online Activism.” Sociological Science (2014): 1-9. Document.
Reddick, Christopher G. Politics, Democracy and E-Government: Participation and Service Delivery:. London: IGI Global, 2010. Document.