Accelerating Social Change through Digital Media

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the BYU Humanities Alumni lecture with Aaron H. Sherinian, the vice president of communications and public relations for the United Nations Foundation. In his lecture, “The World’s ‘Renaissance 2.0’ Moment,” he talked about how the changes in technology have created what he defined as a renaissance moment, which allows for greater social change by the individual. He argued that at this point in history each individual has a greater influence, and opportunity for good, through the internet and new forms of connecting and communicating throughout the world. Although he did warn that there are problems and concerns with the prevalence of digital media, he described the power each of us has to make the world care about those issues that need to be changed, whether we are in Provo, UT or in Africa. Through digital culture each person can advocate for causes that matter to them, and their voice can be heard.

I really think that this is an incredibly important and powerful idea for helping to achieve social change throughout the world. This summer I had the opportunity to advocate for women’s issues at the international level with the Worldwide Organization for Women, as well as on a smaller level with a British non-profit, Orchid Project. Although I gained valuable experiences with both of these organizations, including learning a lot about a wide variety of women’s issues, what I was most struck with is how slow larger-scale, international change really is. With all the steps and politics, it really is hard to address major problems in a timely fashion. Yet I saw clearly the power of social media to help raise awareness and get issues out there, through my work with the smaller organization. Orchid Project is particularly good at utilizing every medium they can to raise awareness of their issue, Female Genital Mutilation, and this includes Facebook, Skype, twitter and blogging. Although Orchid is working with a team of people (and a number of interns) to spread their message, I think their model is particularly relevant to each of us as a way to accelerate change through using every tool available to us.

I can only imagine the possible change if each of us utilized our digital media connections (whether it’s a blog or Facebook) to raise awareness and present solutions to social problems. As the lecture taught me, we are at a crucial time in history where things are changing and shifting as technologies grow and develop. I would like to see each of us utilize this momentum to change the world, one individual at a time.