The Implications of the Rising Social Media Agenda
By Eryn Swann
Following a year after which a Reddit user bought thousands of shares in a dying company called GameStop (GME), it wasn’t until late January of this year that the masses of retail investors on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets joined in the crusade to overvalue GME thereby robbing powerful hedge funds, that had over 150% of shorts against GME, of millions of dollars – while simultaneously amassing stupidly insane gains and fortunes from it. This act has subsequently been named by many traders and financial analysts on Wall Street as the Reddit Rebellion – a group of millions with an anti-establishment and anti-capitalist agenda however, only for the 1% - due to their exclusive ability to pull the strings and manipulate markets at their discretion. While this event resulted in billions of dollars wiped from stock markets around the world and revenge antics from hedge funds to tank the stock and regain their losses, the biggest “achievement” that this Reddit group has to claim is the result of fear and uncertainty in the stability of financial markets in the current modern day - all due to their congregation on a social media platform.
Now more than ever, due to the plethora of social media platforms ranging from apps to chatrooms, any group of individuals with like-minded opinions and agendas, are capable of banding together to disrupt the norm. The morality and detriment of these groups may be debatable but their effect on first-world societies is immense and has the ability to enact both great change as well as great harm. Depending on the group of people and their group mentality and outlook on their potential for change can either breed a seriousness that will result in an intimidating force that may cause further division in an already untrustworthy society or be deemed as a “memeable” challenge/event that will not quite ever be understood by older generations and, only until they are able to greatly rock the boat, may be treated similarly to more serious ideological groups. Furthermore, while all of these groups seek attention to disrupt thought and institutions globally, some only attain international acknowledgement with a brevity of days to weeks and thus, are either completely forgotten or the damage they are able to inflict is deemed so great that it may become monitored or regulated. However, it is also typically the social media platforms themselves that are heavily criticised in the event of rising discourse – the last few months in particular have shown that conservative voices are currently being targeted, infamously with the deplatforming of Parler by Apple and Amazon to send a political message that while free speech is a given right, opinions not deemed wholly in line with the views of the majority may be heavily scrutinised or censored. Subsequently after the Reddit Rebellion, Reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian was questioned on why Reddit felt this group was still allowed to operate given the short power they wielded, to which he felt it was neither his nor Reddit’s place to censor speech and/or an entire group based on the group’s actions. This sentiment too is echoed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook that all further enabled the global outreach of Black Lives Matter, jointly in addition with the rise of Antifa while simultaneously, individuals who criticised the negative impacts of those groups were either mocked, labelled or silenced.
All of these modern-day events that involve the power of group thought are able to have both positive and negative impacts that will either change society for the better or the worse. But while these groups are supported or criticised, it is the people in the middle who ultimately suffer the consequences. Whether it be the small businesses that were ruined during last summer’s riots or the late-to-the-game retail investors that invest their life savings in hopes of “riding it the moon” to turn out a quick fortune and undoubtedly lose it all in the name of frivolous revenge against the 1%. There are always consequences and while it is not typical that the group incurs repercussions, it is ordinary people that are both taught and learn valuable lessons, either directly or indirectly, from the group and their sometimes divisive agendas that unfold and impact society – and whether or not they are hurt in the process, the group and their agenda never truly dies.