Can We Tweet, Post, and Share Our Way to a More Sustainable Society? A Review of the Current Contributions and Future Potential of #Socialmediaforsustainability

Abstract

Social media is changing how people connect, create, and share content and is an integral force shaping modern society. Given the significant environmental challenges society faces, this review considers (a) how social media is currently contributing to the development of a more sustainable society and (b) directions for future work such that researchers and practitioners may more effectively utilize this technology. At present, case studies, anecdotal evidence, and research demonstrate that social media is contributing to sustainability in diverse ways including behavioral interventions utilizing social media elements; social and political activism; supporting/generating sustainable business practices and addressing corporate "greenwashing"; increasing access to, and the potential quality of, environmental education; and through citizen science projects. Although this work is promising, there is an urgent need for further and more methodologically rigorous research, which evaluates the specific impacts of social media technology on sustainability outcomes, i.e., proenvironmental knowledge, attitudes, and-in particularbehavior.

Rise to fame: events, media activity and public interest in pangolins and pangolin trade, 2005–2016

“…These types of questions have relevance beyond pangolins (see e.g. Pearson et al 2016;Wu et al 2018), but high profile issues that have evolved over time (in terms of media and public interest), such as pangolin trade, will likely offer useful case studies.…”

Educación, activismo y tecnologías digitales: una revisión sistemática

“…Beyond the different and sometimes less rigorous ways of naming the relationship between activism mediated by digital technologies and education, the literature review revealed a broad set of political practices which involve different levels of participation: critical and active media consumption, searching for and circulating information, coordination of actions, content production, hacker practices. Likewise, in the different texts, activism mediated by digital technologies (or this concept referred to with different terms) is associated with various forms of technological appropriation that have diverse practices and purposes: raising awareness, protesting or defending certain causes of interest, promoting social mobilization, creating new forms of citizen participation, generating local, national and global collaboration networks, and strengthening solidarity and a sense of community (Pearson et al, 2016;Linder et al, 2010;Khoury-Machool, 2007;Theocharis, 2012;Peña, Rodríguez, & Sáez 2016;Enguix, 2016;González-Lizarraga, Becerra-Traver, & Yanez-Díaz, 2016;Vivitsou & Viitanen, 2015;Weeks, 1999).…”

“…The newest social movements usually are organized around plural motivations linked to diverse sources of indignation: imposed educational reforms (Bekkers et al, 2011); sexual violence; discriminatory policies and the need for a better sex education policy (LaRiviere et al, 2012;Linder et al, 2010;Shayne, 2008); abduction and violation of the right of women to formal education (Chiluwa & Ifukor, 2015); job insecurity (Biddix & Park, 2008); defense of high quality public education (Valenzuela, 2013;Theocharis, 2012;Heron-Hruby & Landon-Hays, 2014;Fullam, 2017); genocide or extreme violence (Biddix, 2010); environmental damage and animal abuse (Pearson et al, 2016;Weeks, 1999), to name a few.…”

“…In the same way, environmental organizations promote education on sustainability through videos and social networks. The videos circulated through YouTube show the impact of deforestation, or other types of environmental damage, in order to promote awareness, learning, responsible consumption and fundraising for environmental organizations (Pearson et al, 2016).…”

“…In contrast to corporate media, which often represents the political, economic and socio-cultural realities and interests of their owners, the contemporary activists create counterhegemonic spaces (counter-spaces) in which structural issues, ususally marginalized in mainstream media, can be discussed. Therefore, activism mediated by digital technologies makes it possible to question dominant media narratives, generate spaces of resistance and visualize the stories or voices of marginalized communities (Linder et al, 2010;Pearson et al, 2016).…”