As society evolves so does the definition of activism. Many people are very apprehensive to label themselves as activists in fear of not being able to live to those expectations that we put upon ourselves and other people. I label myself as an everyday activist, given the example and definitions talked about through class, but prefer not to voice it, because I know that most people would not agree with me if they have not been centered around the same disscussions.
What stuck with me the most when discussing this in class is the need to label many things. I liked the statement of doing activism rather than labeling yourself as an activist. Moving forward this is what I want to hold myself to rather than labeling myself as an activist publically. Before coming into this class and having these discussions around activism, I would say I was somewhat ignorant as to what an activist truly was, I always thought you had to do something great or change policy to carry the title of being an activist. Have I changed policy? Absolutely not, but one thing that I am most proud of is from my sophomore year high school after the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting I called my local representative (Andy Harris) and expressed my disdain for guns and need for gun control (obviously given the fact that he brought a gun in the capitol, really shows how much my opinions mattered). This is one of many examples of the act of doing activism. The activism I do on an everyday level involves educating friends and family on important issues to me, usually based around race/ethic issues, socio-economic issues, issues surrounding sexuality, and women's issues; along with posting through social media, I donate to various causes I believe in and sign petitions. On a more involved level, I was able to start my blog and am now in the process of creating my podcast. Though I do wish to do more surrounding activism and physically going to protests I am unable to do so because of COVID. Throughout the discussion, the class debated whether or not social media activism is true activism, even as many people might disagree with me I truly do believe that it is a good first start. Many of our problems lie in misinformation and misrepresentation of oppressed peoples, and social media is a fun and easy way to be able to educate people about these issues, to ignore that aspect that social media brings to the table is to ignore a valuable resource that we have in our fingertips.