Working on this group project has caused the members of our group to be more conscious and aware of our issue.
“These student activists are focused on gathering and distributing knowledge contextually, which suggests not only a rhetorical awareness and savvy but also a critical attention to, and understanding of, material conditions (Portman-Daley, 2013).”
Through our group participation I feel that we have more of a rhetorical awareness of the online world in general, as well as the world of suicide. This rhetorical awareness allowed us to post about the issues surrounding suicide, as well as give us information or templates on what and how to post.
Gladwell opened our eyes to the problems of clicktivism. Therefore rather than trying to change an entire social issue, we changed our mission to a more social goal.
“Gladwell offers activists the wrong advice. He proposes a return to an anachronistic, authoritarian, and hierarchical model of activism. This may work from a political revolution perspective, but it will never bring about the necessary social revolution. Instead, what is needed today is a new breed of activists who ‘jettison the consumerist ideology of marketing that has for too long constrained the possibility of social revolution (White, 2010).”
By focusing on social issues rather than trying to end suicide, our blog became more cohesive, and I feel, more effective. Towards the end of our project, we started asking other to take pictures with uplifting notes, messages, and quotes. Although the time was short, we were very successful in getting several people to participate. If we had more time, this is something I feel we would continue, and possibly create a campaign around the images. This “campaign” would be an example of the “social revolutions” that occur in social media. These images may serve as a type of meme or image that would be representative of suicide and suicide prevention.
If we had more time, I would like to have been able to create other ways for users to participate in our cause. Just by asking some friends to take picture with quotes, and messages, we were able to gather dozens of images. This demonstrates the effect of user participation. By having users participate, we could expand our blog and awareness of our blog exponentially. The user participation would then result in higher social awareness of the issue, and it could also potentially change the attitudes of the public.
no more rape culture 