Is social media an appropriate medium to share important information through?

Do teens care about the world they live in?

How effective are social media campaigns in raising awareness for causes?

With the advancement of technology in the twenty-first century, social media is slowly becoming acknowledged as a reliable source for news and an acceptable medium for social justice. Organizations and news sources are largely dependent on social media to educate citizens on national issues. Most notably, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease (ALS) became a well-known topic last summer when it went viral on Facebook and Instagram after the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” was created to spread awareness of the disease. While it is very apparent that social media has a large role in spreading information, its value to America’s youth remains debatable.

The benefits of social media are clear; young people are exposed to various causes and have the chance to directly involve themselves in those causes. The ALS Foundation, for example, was able to use fast-paced social media to raise several million dollars from donations via promotion of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which strongly contrasts the comparatively minuscule amount the foundation collected in years past.

Nonetheless, the major increase in ALS funds is largely due to the participation and generous donations of celebrities, not those of teenagers. While many young people participated in the challenge, the motives behind their participation were often not in appreciation of the cause but rather in yearning for attention or simply for fun. Many completed the challenge to take part in the new “fad.” As a result, many teens do not take the time to fully understand ALS, even though the facts are readily available to them.

This highlights a latent problem Millennials have: most don’t care about any issue unless a fun, desirable outcome awaits them. There is a myriad of information available on social media concerning injustices and hardships worldwide—from racial and gender discrimination to water scarcity—but teens have become indifferent toward it. With an overabundance of information and resources, it becomes difficult for teens to discern the importance of different issues, which leads them to think “I can’t fix all of these problems, so why try at all?”

Despite these negative aspects, the potential of social media could override people’s apathy. A majority of young Americans today have a smartphone right in their pockets and constantly check them. It would be absurd not to use social media as a medium to find out what’s going on in the world around them.

It isn’t that social media is necessarily an unsuitable means for social justice, but that younger generations have an inappropriate attitude toward learning. Once they grow more interested in their surroundings and accept that urgent problems won’t solve themselves, the true power of social media will be unleashed.