Many people underestimate the power we were handed with the technology to connect. Studies have come trying to blame bullying, anger, hate, pedophilia or many other unpleasant realities in our culture on this technology. Science supposedly gave us the evil that disconnects but I deem it has not. We should be thankful that in a disconnected world such as this a form of communication has developed for those of us living in little boxes. We can communicate vast distances over the noise that would otherwise drown us out. It is a gift especially when some of the people you care about most are hardest for you to connect with intellectually.
Some people completely discredit the power of social media as a tool. This story might change your mind. Many of us when we see a billboard we don't like, do nothing. But someone in Portland Oregon thought differently. They saw this billboard depicting a supposed marijuana drug addict and in their offense decided to make a funny internet meme about it. This may not seem like a big deal to you if you live in a state where marijuana is still illegal. But for Portland this billboard demonizes over 10,000 legal medical marijuana patients as drug addicts. We don't have billboarda depicting the look of someone taking too many prescription pain killers because that is a legal treatment for pain or illness. Just like cannabis is legal in some places.
After less than a day of this meme's circulation someone started an event called "Protest the Billboard at 122 & Division!" The people who felt passionate about its discrimination went to great lengths to try and contact the company that put it up. It's based in Florida and has no phone number. So after that brick wall the protesters turned to calling Clear Channel who owns the physical billbaord space. Clear Channel had no desire to pay people to field a ficticious companies complaints. Therefore issuing a statement to the company to release a phone number for complaints or it will be taken down. It was also discovered that this is a stock photo of a Methamphetamine addict that has been further photo shopped. It forced people to ask the question, why is a mysterious company from Florida posting anti cannabis posters in Portland.
In less than 48 hours these citizens had changed an actual form of propaganda in their town. At the time the billboard was announced to be taken down only 120 people had joined the event on FB out of thousands who were invited. At this time there are still only 284 people who ever replied as attending. Most of us think real social change takes more than 120 people. Have you ever tried to get 120 people to do anything? Culturally we are forced to chase down RSVPs for an event as important as a wedding. It is nearly impossible to get people to commit if it is an event of any social or civil rights importance.
Hundreds and thousands will go support sports teams and popular musicians because there is no real conflict there. Those things are distractions. They teach us to form loyalties and divisions amongst ourselves. They teach us nationalism before we can even fully understand what is a country. When you try and get people to commit to a cause they are very selective. People's hesitation to commit to causes tells us there is power in these connections. We spend so much of our time focusing on those associations of home town, team, musical genre or however we've been categorized that we lose sight of the power we have to change things. The power is in love and unity. The more things exist to divide us or demonize other people's lifestyle choices, the longer it will take us to get to where we all have freedom to be happy.
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After less than a day of this meme's circulation someone started an event called "Protest the Billboard at 122 & Division!" The people who felt passionate about its discrimination went to great lengths to try and contact the company that put it up. It's based in Florida and has no phone number. So after that brick wall the protesters turned to calling Clear Channel who owns the physical billbaord space. Clear Channel had no desire to pay people to field a ficticious companies complaints. Therefore issuing a statement to the company to release a phone number for complaints or it will be taken down. It was also discovered that this is a stock photo of a Methamphetamine addict that has been further photo shopped. It forced people to ask the question, why is a mysterious company from Florida posting anti cannabis posters in Portland.
In less than 48 hours these citizens had changed an actual form of propaganda in their town. At the time the billboard was announced to be taken down only 120 people had joined the event on FB out of thousands who were invited. At this time there are still only 284 people who ever replied as attending. Most of us think real social change takes more than 120 people. Have you ever tried to get 120 people to do anything? Culturally we are forced to chase down RSVPs for an event as important as a wedding. It is nearly impossible to get people to commit if it is an event of any social or civil rights importance.
Hundreds and thousands will go support sports teams and popular musicians because there is no real conflict there. Those things are distractions. They teach us to form loyalties and divisions amongst ourselves. They teach us nationalism before we can even fully understand what is a country. When you try and get people to commit to a cause they are very selective. People's hesitation to commit to causes tells us there is power in these connections. We spend so much of our time focusing on those associations of home town, team, musical genre or however we've been categorized that we lose sight of the power we have to change things. The power is in love and unity. The more things exist to divide us or demonize other people's lifestyle choices, the longer it will take us to get to where we all have freedom to be happy.
Like me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
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