Reflecting on #MeToo

Throughout this module, I have learned a great deal about how social media can bring marginalized groups and buried stories to the forefront of society’s attention. For me, the most relevant of these stories have been the hundreds of thousands that have emerged through the #MeToo movement. Last year, I witnessed women from all walks of life posting about their most intimate struggles publicly so that others would have the benefit of understanding what women go through every day. With a simple hashtag, the unspoken solidarity that women have with each other became spoken and everyone had to listen. It was truly inspiring to witness the outpouring of love and support that came out of the movement—not only from women, but from men, as well. There was some backlash, as there always is, but it did not overshadow nor conquer the stories being told. I feel confident that our world has been changed for the better because of the #MeToo movement, both in ways we can measure currently and ways that we will not be able to understand until the future.  

CBS News presents a discussion on how being in a social media bubble can cause a voter to view only the political opinions they already agree with, which can seriously influence their individual vote and the overall results of elections. 

Although the #MeToo movement was started 10 years ago by Tarana Burke, this is the all-important tweet that begun its viral discussion in 2017 and resulted in countless women sharing their experiences and banding together against sexual assault. 

Just because social media isn’t as utopian a force as Friedman believed doesn’t mean that it must be a dystopian danger. Nor is social media, as some people like to say, merely a neutral means—one that can be directed, with equal ease, toward any number of ends. Instead, social media has a very specific impact: It weakens the power of insiders and strengthens the power of outsiders. As a result, it favors change over stability—and constitutes a big, new threat to political systems that have long seemed immutable.

Yasha Mounk, “Enemy of the Status Quo” 

In this article, Dr. Rosanna Guadagno discusses how women and men use social media differently--and potential ways that these differences can be harmful to women.