The Black Lives Matter movement, a political and social movement advocating for protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people, was magnified over the past few months due to an increase in social media influence.
Many teenagers involved in the BLM movement are doing so through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.
“I’ve been getting involved in [the movement] by talking about it with friends and family and posting articles I can find about it on my personal Instagram and other social media,”  Champion High School senior, Raegan Tanner said.
The social media visibility of the BLM movement led people to take initiative to educate themselves and form new opinions and ideas.
“I educated myself about BLM mostly through different posts I saw on social media and links to articles that people posted,” Tanner said. “Even though I don’t know everything about the movement, I still feel like I can create some sort of opinion about it, and with everything going on today sometimes opinions can change. I used to be the person who didn’t think [BLM] was inclusive of everyone, but after seeing what it stands for I feel like I can say that I support it.”
Generation Z has been quick to support the movement, especially through their social media presence, as it has risen in popularity.
“Our generation just tends to fight for these things more,” senior Brandon McClelland said.
However, some of these young activists’ parents and members of older generations have not had quite the same reaction.
“I don’t think my parents are against the movement and they support me and my political beliefs, but it’s not like they support the movement like I do,” Raegan said.
Many older generations agree that the presence of social media in society is an influential factor that caused younger generations to participate in the movement.
“I don’t think there were a lot of parents who were ever socially active,” Mrs. Kim Grosenbacher, AP U.S. Government teacher said. “I just think the prominence of instant information, 24 hour media, has changed the world.”
The differences between Gen. X and Gen. Z became more visible through the Black Lives Matter Movement as younger generations were more outspoken on social media.
“Our generation is just quick to go with [the movement],” Brandon said. “I think it just has to do with life experience. Maybe [our parents] did the same things when they were our age and just got burnt out.”
In the past 30 years, social movements have changed drastically. Before the rise of social media, information wasn’t spread nearly as quickly from person to person. Using social media opens up the scope of people that can be involved and increases people’s exposure to information.
“You have to compare the differences in technology. You didn’t have instant access to information, pictures, or false information that we have now,” Mrs. Grosenbacher said.
The greater amount of support seen in younger generations compared to older generations can be partly attributed to the presence of social media.
“I’m very leery of social media because a lot of it isn’t very accurate,” Grosenbacher said. “So people show up against this injustice but they don’t know what they’re showing up for.”
Generation Z made friends and family members aware of the movement through social media, but as the movement progresses, older generations need to see more than a post to get them on board.
“If you’re going to show up in the Black Lives Matter movement, what are you showing up for and what do you want?” Grosenbacher said. “[…] Yes, you should petition government, and yes, you should assemble for the cause, but you have to give a solution to the cause and you have to give an answer to the cause. […] Tell the legislatures what kind of laws you want passed and what kind of action you want taken.”