Elsa, Week 10 - "Cute Winter Boots"
With the recent inauguration of Trump as the 47th U.S. president and the unbanning of TikTok, American users have flooded this social media platform with discussions and conversations over the new president’s proposed policies. Trump’s signing of numerous executive orders, Biden’s farewell address, and Elon Musk’s questionable salute have become hot topics of discussion within the American public, with users arguing for various sides and even individuals from other countries chiming in with their opinions.
And consequently, with these widely discussed issues circulating across various social media platforms, new trends have arisen that showcase many Americans’ dissatisfaction with current governmental actions. One of these trends, for example, includes users uploading videos with the phrase, “cute winter boots,” as a way to mention and discuss political topics without getting their posts “censored” or removed by the TikTok algorithm. Many have used the comment sections of these posts to hide messages expressing their thoughts, writing statements about winter boots and capitalizing specific words or letters to reveal their true opinions and perspective. Other political trends have included users changing their profile pictures to the Hunger Games logo to represent their desire for “revolution” or writing the phrase “Deny, Defend, Depose” on dollar bills. Yet the rise of these trending videos has also led to the pressing question: Do our actions and statements on social media really have enough power to bring real changes?
In my blog post last week, I described how the rise of social media has allowed like-minded individuals to form communities and bring real social change in recent years, from spearheading social movements to calling out large corporations for their flaws. Yet being able to change the entire government and their current plans is completely different and way larger than what users on TikTok have done before: it’s difficult to bring actual change by just criticizing and condemning the government from our couch at home.
It’s undeniable that our government has power—our country would be left in chaos if it didn’t. But this also means that bringing change requires a lot of power as well. Simply using “winter boots” as a code phrase or changing your profile picture to the Hunger Games logo is not enough to make an impact; if these Americans are truly unhappy in their current situation, a stronger course of action may be needed for the future.
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Elsa, I really liked how you connected the idea of social media trends to political dissatisfaction in your post. The way you also described the “cute winter boots” trend as a form of resistance, while also critiquing its limited effectiveness was thought-provoking. The ability to relate it to broader discussions around social change and government influence gives a deep understanding of how online movements might not always translate into action. The balance you showed between acknowledging the power of social media and recognizing its limitations was really cool as well. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of the trends and posting, but you’re right in the fact that change requires more than just digital resistance. It would be even better to see you expand on the potential for these smaller movements for larger actions in the real world.
ReplyDeleteHi Elsa, I thought it was really cool how you’ve been aware of the changes that take place in society right now, including both government changes in the big picture and our generation’s reaction to these changes. I’ve also noticed the “cute winter boots” trend happening, which is why I wanted to read your blog, and your interpretation of the practicality of this trend is really interesting to me. I also think that it will probably take more work than just criticizing things going on in the world behind a screen, despite the power of mobility through social media, to actually induce change in society. I read your blog last week, and I thought it was insightful for you to connect your two topics with each other. Your analysis of society’s current broader developments included a lot of specific examples and evidence, which helped me learn a lot, so I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello Elsa! Your Blog was really interesting, and the way you brought up recent controversial events that took place around the world and the inauguration of President Trump was quite amazing to see. Social media has become a place for many individuals around the world to share their opinion and exercise their right to freedom of speech. However, there are many, and I mean many instances where people around the world are silenced due to their publications on various social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. With various aspects of the fact that individuals can not speak on the topics that concern them or peak their interest, large groups of people protest and have to work under the radar in order to get a certain task done, in this case being voicing an important opinion. When the time comes, these companies hopefully will realize that the opinion of the public matters, and it should be taken into account when making certain decisions.
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