Merlyna Lim, Distinguished Scholar of Technology and Public Engagement at ASU, spoke Monday night about the evolving relationship between digital and traditional social movements in today’s world.
Lim’s presentation, titled Bricks & Bytes: Political Activism in the Social Media Age, was the latest installment in the Walter Cronkite School’s Must See Mondays speaker series.
Lim spoke about how social media wasn’t the driving force of uprisings such as Arab Spring and Kony 2012. Rather, it was people and history that brought about those changes.
“This is history,” Lim said. “There is time. This is about the youth who use (social media) to get their point across; social media is a part of the lives of the people.”
Lim continued to outline the history of the Arab Spring and the political uprising in Egypt that traced back a decade.
“This revolution didn’t just come from the sky,” Lim said.
Lim told the crowd of approximately 45 people that social movements, such as the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, were originally among already-established social groups. These groups never communicated with strangers; people would meet in coffee shops and quietly discuss their issues with the same people every time.
Social media and social movements of today’s times were likened to a “hidden transcript” where people can talk about politics in private and gain followers without being scrutinized, Lim said.
Lim said these two forms of social movements have been combined in recent years to create the type of political activism that is common in today’s world.
“We need to really see social media and its connection to the activities on the ground and the making of the actual events,” Lim said.
She gave an example of youth in Indonesia who use Facebook and mobile phones to generate a following for their causes against political corruption. Lim said the older generations spread the word by talking in taxicabs and local coffee shops.
The spread of political activism hasn’t been limited to a specific group of people, Lim said. Technology has enabled various economic classes to express their opinions.
“Social-media movements are usually middle-class movements, but the use and access to pictures today is a hybrid network connecting the classes,” Lim said.
Journalism junior Katelyn Niemiec said she enjoyed Lim’s fresh take on the idea of social media and its involvement in people’s daily lives as well as in political activism.
“Just because social media is prevalent and relevant in our lives, we really do see what goes on globally and the impacts that just one tweet, one post can make in our own lives,” Niemiec said.
Journalism freshman Hector Salas Almeida said he appreciated Lim’s explanation as to why social media is not the sole driving force behind political activism such as the Arab Spring.
“I agree with her about the revolution of the Arab Spring since there are so many other factors that need to be considered,” Salas Almeida said. “I really liked everything about her presentation.”
Lim is the director of the Participatory Media Lab at ASU, a student-run lab that focuses on producing original analyses around emerging patterns of production, consumption, collaboration and interaction in media. She is currently researching various topics about shaping society and the political culture of technology.
Contact the reporter at Mary.Schwab@asu.edu
