Personalization and Acceleration of Gun Control Activism

In the article by Poell and van Dijck, "Social Media and Activist Communication," it is discussed how communication has evolved and change how social media activists interact and share information online and how this may impact a movement. Poell and van Dijck focus on the concepts of personalization and acceleration of media communication. They define personalization as the "reach and speed of activist communication while simultaneously undermining its long-term efficacy" (532), and acceleration as the "activist communication propelled by social media" (529) and how that allows users to exchange information in real-time in large amounts. This begs the question, how does this relate to gun control activism?

In terms of gun control activism, we can see many examples of personalization and acceleration in activists post. Especially during the aftermath of mass shootings. During the tragedy of the Robb Elementary school shooting on May 24th, 2022, social media users received real-time updates and information as the events unfolded. However, not all of this information was found to be accurate. So, though acceleration of information can be a positive in keeping communities up to date, there is a point where information spreads so quickly that it can not be fact-checked and validated. This leads to the creation of skewed perspectives of life-threatening events. This then connects to the personalization of information. Though, in this case it is helpful because online users can see first-hand the extreme trauma that comes along with mass shootings within schools. However, what are the long-term implications of these posts that are overlooked as they are being posted? Social media posts like this run the risk of being posted consensually. Consider this scenario, your a parent recording from outside a building, anxiously waiting for your child to be in the safety of your arms. In the midst of your recording you catch another parent receiving news that they will not be seeing their child again. Not realizing this, you post the video of another's most vulnerable moments. So, yes, one may be able to quickly reach a large audience, but at what cost?

In the article below, we can see the speed at which information was shared about the events, as it published May 25th, 2022.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/uvalde-school-shooting-victims/