Social Impact Of Internet On Human Rights Awareness And Volunteerism

Research Question

Describe about the Social Impact of Internet on Human Rights Awareness and Vounteerism?

The report would look into the use of internet and how it has changed the social dynamics to recruit volunteer for Human Rights cause across the globe. Today, more than any day before the use of social media is a phenomenon where the people with ideas and views can log in and recommend what can be done to make the human life better. Further the social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram has given the option to the user to upload the photos of people and place or events which they find needs some introspection. The users across US are around 74% who use internet Social media regularly (Pewinternet.org, 2013). This number is consistently increasing across Australia and other commonwealth nations, exponentially. The volunteers are those who wish to be a part of the movement for change where the social media’s use via internet through portable mobile devises has enhanced the possibilities.

The report would try and investigate the need for social media in today’s world and society. The questions thus would thus be as follows:

How is the social media useful in Human Rights Movement across the globe?

What utility is the social media serving to the cause of volunteer collection?

Is the media actually serving any social cause that are engaging the people and benefiting the society s a whole?

What mal use of social media may occur and how would they be treated in the long run?

The media which has created a substantial amount of buzz across the globe where people with likeminded ideas can gather together and share a common platform to debate, discuss, give ideas and thus create substantial amount of information for the one who wish to access them. On the other hand issues of Human Rights were previously an issue that was looked into by traditional media and was a trend that was varying from nation to nation. Even few were suppressed before it was even published. The blood diamond issues of African Serra Leone was one them which went unreported for so many years, till the western media got a clue about it. The atrocities of child labour in the developing nations, work health conditions etc are few business issues which are now more looked and cared after than it was before (Nickel, 2015). Thus the young and dynamic people all across the globe who feels about the pain and sufferings of people in any corner of the Globe, tanks to the social media, goes and tries to volunteer in such situation. Few examples would be the Red Cross Society, Missionaries of Charity, People Behind Brand where people goes to help the cause. The information flow and the people’s interest in it are the two very vibrant issues that come out of the case. The UNESCO funded projects looks for volunteers in the various parts of globe to come and assist the cause (Penner, 2002). For the institution like these recruits people via social media and they also tires to develop the people’s conscience via social media interventions.

Social Media

However, the other arguments that can be put forth on the use of social media are that it can be used for some other cause than god use of helping people or charity. The dreadful terrorists like ISIS or Al-Qaida too are seen to have promoted fanatic religious sentiments t recruit young volunteers all across the globe. This part of the debate can’t be put aside as this issue too is a concern for the society as a whole. The recruitment of people from non-Arab nations like UK, US, Australia, India are all effected by the social media use by few who use this boon of technology as a tool of recruitment, develop mal sentiments and thus makes the young people fall into the trap of crime. The governments all across have seen the opposite side of Social Media use which had been now been monitored to see that the use of this internet media is not used for anti-social causes (Islam and Gul, 2012).

The use of internet and social media has reaped a great deal of value for people making them engage more and give ideas for improvements. Donations for the cause are more easily accessed along with the touch points of engagement are now easier to reach, communicate, and take feedback in real time (Schroeder, 2013). Volunteers for human right cause gets to know about the plight of people and engage themselves more along with developing the social view towards the cause and thus create a better movement for a human rights cause (Stark, 1999). Nevertheless, the media also serves as a platform for the people who volunteers for the case and give needed feedback about their experience grooming the future volunteers prior to their induction, so that they may have an idea of what they can expect in the line of work. Making all feel comfortable about the experience sharing, using the media to give ideas, pointing of issues, discussing and debating issues to get the best possible solution to the problems. However the social media is also used to misled people towards a concocted story without any truth can also be propagated to influence the people and the society (Downing, 2011). Such false propaganda are spread like bushfire at times causing law and order problems. The case of France of November 2014 is one instance when the Minority Muslim groups were told that the Islamic Holy book was burnt in some place in France which caused mass riots in the streets of Paris and other cities of France (Ishizawa, 2014).

Virtual Volunteering

Therefore the utility and its adverse effects are in equal share when it comes to the effects of social media. The volunteerism towards rioting is something that is not socially accepted and are harmful for the nation and national image at large. Therefore, a certain level of restrain and control and monitoring I needed. Nevertheless, the other face was observed in the Egypt where the social media was used to create anti-government protests and the government had to ban the media use making the democratic rights of people face challenge. Therefore how the media is used and what all effects it may harness in the process is a issue of debate. Furthermore, China is a communist state where the media is controlled by the state and the democratic framework of the media is not applicable in such a state as it is elsewhere (Papademas, 2011). This have kept the restrictions on the media which itself is undemocratic and is adverse to the social human rights of free thinking and free speech. The line of what to do and what not to do is an issue that have a varied perspective when considered from a society point of view. The dilemma is what should be taken as useful and beneficial and what is adverse for the society and what all issues are necessary to be looked into. Therefore, the social media and the user’s credibility’s un-solicitude is one problem that comes in the foray. Thus it is more effective if the cause of human rights is been handled and moderated by a group of trained professional who knows what to propagate and what not.

The virtual volunteering is another issue which is also looked into as the mass of such people in the social media is huge. This has given the needed impetus to the political fraternity to see and make sustainable positive changes for the society. The people’s pressure towards the issues of human rights and thus volunteer collection (Virtual or Physical) for such cause has made many positive changes which have made the state to bring in new legislations and guidelines to see that the rights of people is protected at all cost, in the state. Now the other two very important supporting assets for such a social movement needs internet and mobile devices available for all to be able to be a part. However, the infrastructure and economy for few nations are still in a nascent stage to involve a huge mass of citizens towards such a cause. Virtual volunteering has made a revolution in the developing nations where the pressure of Social media has changed the discourse of the day. The example of the Women’s rights movements in the Middle Eastern nations has open eyes of many people towards the abject violation of human rights that is conducted in such states. The levels of oppression and gender bias have lead people with good will to use the media to propagate the truth all across the globe to take contingence. The virtual volunteering for such short term episodic movements have created the right vibes among the mass where their ideas and knowledge about issues have answered many a problem which people were unaware about even a decade back. The effects of such a huge knowledge bank in the tips of one finger have made the cause generate social awareness and thus political will to change things around (Burke et al. 2014).

The Dilemma

The aspect of psychology in the social media is another very important part of the social awareness and involvement campaign which are generating great results socially. The challenges of today are the isolation of people from one another where the people are more acclimatised to a life of isolation in their own little space (Chen and Neill, 2015). The aspect of communications via social media has created the scope to provide the people in isolation to stay connected with others without being physically present. The smart phones have given the platform of engagement which at times have reduced the feeling of isolation and loneliness due to such a lifestyle that the society have entered into. This engagement is good as it reduced the stress and anxiety of being alone for many and have given a great media of recreation. The organizations which are active in social media have virtual volunteers (Green peace and Change.org for example) and have increased the number of people which they could have physically engaged a decade back and thus have also enhanced the organizational capacity to create the needed change or cause achievements. However, how morale or socially and legally accepted would a cause be to be taken and given some account of thought, still remains debated. Nevertheless, the time needed for virtual volunteering is lesser compared to physical presence is a great advantage to the social causes these organizations are fighting for, so the scope of development of such platforms can add to re-evaluation of the cause, for the global society (Conroy and Williams, 2014).

The scope to meet the cultural difference with utmost competency across various culture’s inhabitants have given the scope of multi-lingual and multi-cultural integration for a common cause. The best practices to be adopted or the needed ideas or resources are more easily accessed by the users for the providers, via social media. The time of communication is in real time thus the actions and strategies too are time-bound in such many cases where the networking has enabled a more inclusive outlook and thus solutions.

Conclusions

The use of social media is a boon for the people who need to propagate ideas and cause to improve human lives all over the world. The awareness generation and feedback gathering space made by social media is of benefits which were previously unheard or untested. However the mal effects of such real tie communications, at times miscommunications are huge which has been seen in many a case where the terrorists have used the media to incite social violence and civil disorder. Thus the use of social media to help the human rights cause needs some trained personnel to monitor the handles they use to filter for the cause they are fighting for to collect the virtual support and volunteering. The effects till date had been huge for developed nations but for the developing nations the cause needs to spread fast to have a global social impact. The desired infrastructure and economic growth can only enable such a massive social change which the future needs to see, to be effective and useful for the human race.

List of References

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Chen, F. and Neill, D. (2015). Human Rights Event Detection from Heterogeneous Social Media Graphs. Big Data, 3(1), pp.34-40

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Stark, B. (1999). Reclaiming Social Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives. Human Rights Quarterly, 21(2), pp.547-552.