#Black Lives Matter is not just a social media trend

For the past couple of weeks people have been using social media to spread awareness of the murders of Ahmad Arbery, George Floyd, Aiyana Mo’nay Stanley Jones and so many others. On June 2, 2020 there was a social media blackout on Instagram called #blackouttuesday where people would post a black square to show their support towards the #blacklivesmatter. But the questions is, was that enough?

It’s easy to post a black square or something about Black Lives Matter, but are people doing anything off social media? At the time there were 23 million posts with the caption of “#blackouttesday” but only 11.7 million signatures for the justice for George Floyed petition. This shows the laziness when it comes to take action outside of social media - even for something as simple as signing a petition. Are people using the hashtags just because they see other people using it and figure its a trend they should follow along with?.

Recently, more people have been using their social media platforms to spread awareness about current events and police brutality, but sometimes it feels like that majority of social media is using the hashtags or pretending to be an “activist” for their own benefit, using it to gain more followers, likes or their post/stories being shared.

By Fatuma Maki