Jeffery S. Juris’ “The New Digital Media and Activist Networking within Anti-Corporate Globalization Movements” discusses a lot of what I already know: new digital technologies are being used to build networks, practice media activism, and physically manifest their emerging political ideals. These new platforms have much power and potential for growth, and have not been taken lightly (ex. anti-G8 protests in Genoa).
Before coming to Davidson, I received very little formal education about social movements; most everything I learned about social issues and activism was learned and shaped by what I read online. Even today, with the opportunity to study these movements formally in college, I am still heavily influenced by online media.
I have pretty much always taken technology and access to information about social issues for granted–until one of those dreaded Thanksgiving conversations with older relatives. I was getting frustrated with what I perceived as apathy and close-mindedness, until one told me that I was at an unfair advantage in this argument because I had grown up with the internet. In my own life, one of the most salient features of a generation gap is a gap in social and political consciousness. I wonder, is digital media and activist networking contributing to a global generation gap?
