One look at social media will tell you that protest is cool today. However, with activism mostly surface-level and reactionary, it leaves us questioning, is this enough?
Students love protesting. We’re proud of the voice we have (a special millennial blend drawn from a lifelong diet of sensationalist news) and know we deserve to be heard more by decision makers.
However, the way we protest isn’t as effective as we’d like to think. Not because we don’t care enough about the issues, but because there's more driving our protesting habits than our lovely, altruistic decisions. There's a growing sub-culture impacting the way popular protest plays out.
This is a huge generalisation - there are incredibly effective student activists across the country who deserve more recognition. However, it’s important we recognise the ways in which wider student activist culture has fallen short in order to improve it.
Essentially, today’s culture of mass protest is getting it wrong. Students hear about issues like Trump’s behaviour while scrolling through their phones, then march around with a banner, all the while snapping photos that will get 100 likes on Instagram that evening. This is just reactionary, surface-level engagement with issues and gets nothing done (Trump is still President and Brexit is a year away).
As long as our reactions are driven by likes and emotions, deeper engagement with the issues will be limited because there’s no real discussion happening. To deal with societal problems like populism it’s necessary to understand and deal with the core of the issues, and waving a sign with a picture of Trump on isn’t going to achieve that.
We must use social media for its advantages, not its drawbacks. For example, by utilising its ability to facilitate effective mass engagement and a coherent movement by spreading information about the core drivers behind issues, as opposed to getting caught up in its encouragement of short bursts of surface-level engagement. This could result in effective petitions taking off, and wider realisation of core societal issues.
Protest has always been an integral part of activism, and has a powerful role to play regarding the transformation of norms and ensuring democracy extends further than just a vote. However, the effectiveness of movements will consistently be hindered by limited wider engagement as long as current trends of popular protest are present. Recognising these limitations is an important step towards such improvements, improvements that will create real change.
Cover image: Chris J Ratcliffe/ Getty Images
