3.5 Social media
Social media can be a divisive and risky medium. People disagree about the benefits and dangers inherent to such services and about social media platforms’ providers utilising people’s usage data. Even so, when used carefully social media and social networks continue to be powerful tools for addressing the climate crisis, by:
- raising awareness about key issues regarding climate science and the impact of the climate crisis on humans, animals and the planet
- mobilising individuals into collective offline and online action (as in the 2019 Extinction Rebellion protests in the UK)
- creating climate-conscious digital communities that span contexts
- offering a means of sharing climate-related research to a very wide audience
- emphasising the connections between global and local impact
- helping alleviate climate anxiety by supporting accurate information sharing, relationship-building, and peer support
- supporting disaster planning and response, for example by sharing information about current events and connecting people in need with others who may be able to help them
- tackling misinformation.
You’ll explore some of these affordances next.