Is Internet Activism Equally Influential To Physical Activism?

I’ve been thinking about the power of the Internet to socially or politically organize. It’s a precarious matter. Internet activism can quickly fall into blank-stares and late night time-killing apathy. Lately, it seems my Facebook event calendar is a prolific spam box for College Democrats’ and LSA Student Government’s disposal. I effortlessly “attend” all events or “become a fan” of a select few, but what does it all mean in terms of social change and the state of college campus activism?

Sure all the networks of social change and advocacy platforms are visible online, people are connected, and internet organizing does receive serious national attention in decision making (eg Google Fiber), but should we ride the momentum of organizing online in place of face-to-face and feet-on-the-street?

After talking to some friends at Albion College, which is amidst a financial and academic crisis, it seems hard to believe that just the power of Internet petitions and emails is really that powerful. Can reading an email change as much as physically attending a protest?

These recent questions and feelings led me to cynically envision the future of activism until two moments of viral activism caught my attention:

First, video footage of UC-Davis’s student protest. And, the ACLU’s new campaign in protest of a Mississippi High School denying a lesbian couple from attending prom.

Something about these Internet pages, displaying and promoting, the use of the Internet to organize and rally struck me as different. Having access to these images and ideas connects students and minority groups, but the ACLU’s Internet campaign and UC-Davis’s coverage of their protest is just a supplement to their physical protests. Though it’s often hard to find a balance between relying on the Internet for social protest and using it as a tool, I think as long as we maintain a willingness to jump from our computers when called to, activism will be a potent force.

–Lexie Tourek