In today’s world, we are facing some of the worst damages to our society. Not only are we facing a global pandemic that is changing the world and how we see it, but also the terrible acts of violence against minorities. In a world full of social media and staying distant away from one another, the only thing we can rely on is staying as positive as we can. The moment our world seemed to wake up was due to the terrible death of innocent black people such as Ahmaud Arbery, Geroge Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. This June was the month when the world stopped ignoring these issues even in a time where we couldn’t physically be together. Protests started no matter what but one form of activism started appearing, social activism. The start of social media activism started once strangers online shared their stories, and spread ways to help. 

On Twitter, a certain link started spreading around, a link to something called a Carrd. Before their newfound use to spread activism and different ways to help, they were mostly used for, and still are, used for Twitter accounts to have a link to everything they liked and their pronouns. The most popular “Carrd” being the spread was https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ which has many resources and ways to help support the black lives matter movement and ways to help get justice. Along with these carrds being a new source of information, so were “blackout” days, these days are social media blackouts for different minorities (mostly BIPOC) to spread their culture and spread their issues. Social media activism gained so much from these different links and ways to help, it showed the world even if you couldn’t physically help, there is always another way to help. 

Even though thankfully social media activism gained huge popularity so did “Performative Activism”, performative activism is when someone will use social injustices as a way for them to look good and gain. At first, this word doesn’t seem as harmful, but the actions can be so much worse. A lot of times the actual minorities will be suppressed and silenced so the performative acts of others can be shown and spoken, sometimes those people will even talk over these minorities and tell their own stories. It’s important to teach the difference, especially if we want more awareness and be taught how to fix our wrongdoings. The key to activism is to make sure and not talk over whoever is being hurt, you are to uplift them. It’s also important to understand the difference and not call an activist who is being a true ally performative because it only shames people into not wanting to speak out. Social media activism is important to who we are today, expressing daily during this time. It is important to remember that even if our lives are doing well and we are safe, a lot of others aren’t and it is important we help these people. We NEED to speak out when the time is and make sure and understand, even if we are doing it through social media. If you are planning to do this activism physically it’s important to know to still be safe and wear a mask due to the pandemic, and make sure and stay safe in such a big scene.