Smile! It’s For A Good Cause

With the rise of the internet and more readily accessible social media platforms, many in this generation have felt increasing numbness toward common tragedies. Social media has given countless opportunities for people to capitalize on racial violence, turning traumatizing events into a way to gain popularity and attention. The petitions and TikToks have quickly turned into performative activism, which has become a norm amongst this generation.

For many, it started out as innocent and passionate as they were fighting to get closer to equality for all. But because of the nature of social media, some have developed a constant obsession with seeking attention and being validated by people they simply do not know. With the spike of new social media platforms, comes an influx of influencers on those platforms as well. Because of the overwhelming amount of influencers, there is a battle to be the more popular, or most relevant; that means making content that is relevant and trending. Since so many political and social issues are treated as a trend and a way to become more relevant, influencers have been using these issues to promote themselves.

“I think some of the activism I see online is genuine,” senior Cheyann Thomas said. “But a lot of it is for the facade of being an ally or a supporter. Some people in this generation simply see political and social issues as a hobby to partake in, not as actual people fighting for rights and needing help doing so.”

A popular example of this is someone who a large part of Gen Z knows: Sienna Mae, the TikToker known for being overwhelmingly body positive, who labeled herself as someone with a body that is not considered the beauty standard. She was known for posting videos and photos unedited of herself to show how even though she isn’t the skinniest girl, her body is still beautiful.

The problem with fans arose when she released a now discontinued line of merchandise that read, “Have you eaten today?” Many felt this was insensitive to those with eating disorders, as her brand is promoting body positivity, and fans concluded that she really did not care about the social issues surrounding body image in a society that she claimed. Others even argued that she simply used the insecurities of others to make a profit.

“Activism is popular online because it’s easy and everyone has a persona to upkeep. If you repost a B Black Lives Matter post or change your profile picture to “BLM”, you are now praised for being an ally,” Thomas said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing or a good thing; it’s based on the intentions of the creator.”

Caring more about the likes and amount of interaction they get on their activism posts has amplified the problem of fake news, by Gen Z believing and spreading misinformation on many social and political movements.

There is a common narrative that because Gen Z essentially grew up with technology and is the best at using it, they are not so easily fooled by misinformation that circles the internet daily; however, this doesn’t account for how often young people are the victims of it.

“Gen Z is very young, and is being allowed into a space where people thrive off of lies and manipulation, unsupervised,” senior Ana Gonzalez, said. “This causes people to feed into these fake facts and claims, sometimes without knowing any better, in hopes of getting recognition and being seen as a good, educated person.”

In fact, it’s even easier for fake news to seem more real and authentic and get passed around at a faster rate, because fact-checking the information being consumed is not a standard anymore amongst Gen Z. When a story is interesting enough, it grabs the attention of many, and this includes commentary content creators; people who create videos and other forms of media that are surrounded by giving their opinion on an issue that is relevant. 

This causes the spread of a relevant topic at a time that is so fast, that pieces of misinformation are thrown into the mix simply to add fuel to the fire. There are certain groups within Gen Z that are overly obsessed with internet praise and being recognized by people all over the world, that they will push fake news, and not fact-check it.

It was during the 2020 presidential elections when the spread of false information was at an all-time high. There were TikTok videos being made claiming that if Joe Biden won the 2020 elections, then Trump’s supporters from all over will commit mass murder of POC and people in the LBGT community. These claims were clearly false, but they were not fact-checked and because of the sheer shock of these statements being made, they spread like wildfire across the TikTok platform. 

“I think performative activism and fake news both are connected to the false sense of change that social media creates,” Government teacher Joseph Juliano said. “People end up thinking that true activism is taking place when in reality they are being manipulated with propaganda.”

A more prominent example was the conflict in Palestine that trended on social media a few months to a year ago. 

It was when the discussion surrounding the Palestine conflict was at an all-time high, where a fake graph was being passed around social media platforms, mainly Instagram. The graph displayed the number of people who were injured or passed away, and was later proven to be false. This graph was passed around by many people, none of them seeming to fact check what exactly they were sharing, retweeting, posting on their Snapchat stories, or even sending these false articles and stories in group chats with close friends and family. 

“[Performative activism has hurt issues in] too many [ways] to count. I think the worst though, is that it creates a false reality for many of those that are easily susceptible or gullible.” Thomas says. “It divides many just by a false headline, that they will continue to support or believe.”

The spreading of fake news for the sake of seeming “woke” and “educated” has hurt many social and political issues. The true meaning and purpose of Black Lives Matter was lost in the looting, photoshoots with destroyed police vehicles, and in taking mass amounts of videos from protests that provided no context to what was actually happening. The movement was meant to bring justice, but it was not being treated as such.

“I can’t say that I’ve been a “victim” of fake news because I often fact check, but there have been times where I’ve caught myself reeling into online news without checking through certified sources,” Thomas said. “I don’t believe activism is performative, a lot of the time it’s an outlet for people to express what can’t be expressed alone. Some may do it in extreme ways than others but in the end they’re just hoping for change. When it comes to activism, you have to participate with intention and knowledge, and know what you’re talking about and why.”

But the entirety of Gen Z does not treat activism as a means to become famous. Some did their research and shared it with others willing to listen, showing how passionate they truly are about the issues they are putting time and effort into fighting for. 

“I believe Gen Z, on average, has made matters better.” Mr. Castillo says. “Social issues that were once ignored or ‘swept under the rug’ have now come to light, which is important. While it’s uncomfortable for many to ignore certain social inequities, it’s more important to bring them to light so that we can overcome that; Gen Z has accomplished this task.”