Activism Against Social Media

It seems like in today's society people are becoming obsessed with social media. Every time we look up, more and more people are walking down the street with their face glued to a screen. It's getting so bad that now even children as young as three years of age may know how to work a hand-held device better than their parent can.  Another thing that has become very popular is people creating social media accounts for their infant children.  You can only imagine how obsessed someone is with social media that their child who can't even walk or talk yet needs and Instagram account.  Fortunate enough a lot of people are fed up with it and rather decide to take a stand against social media. 

Artists such as Banksy, Tavar Zawacki, and 2wenty have all done their own creative versions of street art to start a movement against social media.  The artists address the issue by creating pieces that give away a subliminal message showing pain and how healthy it is to be addicted to social media.  It was more interesting that Banksy used children in his work, because it gives people a wakeup call. Do you really want your child too become so invested in social media that they learn how to use a phone and see how many likes they got on a post before they can learn to read or write? 

Tavar Zawacki's work in a way says "Look what you're doing, and look what you could be doing". It's like people are so invested in social media that they lose sight in what they can actually be doing. One of his pieces reads "Talk but don't actually say anything". This stands out the most in a way because its showing you a different side of what it means to be social.  People are so open to say anything and everything behind a screen, but if you put them in front of a group of people, they won't even be able to look another person in the eye. Social media is putting a big strain on our social lives, and if this continues, are children won't know how to communicate in the real world. 

Artist 2wenty's street art put people into a big shock. We always put a big emphasis on how important it is to stay healthy when it comes to what we do with our body, but he wanted to show people that social media is just as harmful to you then any damage you can do to your body. 

All of these artists use street art to get people's attention which seems to be the most effective way to get through to people in this generation.  Street art seems to pop out and get people's attention and what better way to promote their specific message then to make something that gets in people's face.  This stands out more than any other way of promoting political issues outside the art world because when you have art, it doesn’t necessarily have to have words on it, and then this happens and people see the work, they have to put their mind to things and actually think about why something is important. Sometimes it's better to think about why something is important in your own view then to have someone tell you why it's important.