A recent announcement of bus and metro fare hikes triggered a series of protests in the Brazilian city of S‹o Paulo. After these protests, I was astonished to hear from my Brazilian friends of a protest being held in Victoria. I would like to call it a movement. My friends participated in this movement to help contribute to changing the politics in Brazil.
Through social media, this movement has spread all over the world. Even though the protests started in Brazil, Brazilian students abroad have voluntarily organized protests and mobilized people through social media in the countries they are in. Eventually, they started achieving what they were hoping for.
Through these events, I saw the power of social media. A few years ago, without social media, this movement couldn’t have spread so quickly. Since social media has connected people all around the world, people can share news or ideas with others anywhere almost instantly.
While discussing this with my friends, we just thought, Why don’t we use social media to work on our problems and help each other? For example, when a country suffers from political trouble, we should help and support each other after sharing the information.
It would be very powerful and helpful if people in other countries could push their politicians to speak up for the people in countries that are suffering.
All international students who study together, not only in Canada, but also all over the world, could work on our home countries’ issues and help each other defend against political or social problems caused by the government, corporations, or other people in power.
As single people we are weak; however, when many people work together, we become a powerful and formidable force. I believe we should pay attention to other people and other countries. History has taught us that when we are indifferent, corruption becomes prevalent in political circles and the government turns a blind eye to the people’s problems. We shouldn’t allow this to happen.
We live in a new world now because of the internet.
We may see a brighter future because of social media, which has the power to tie us as one.
As soon as my friends and I finished lunch together that day, we shook hands and promised that we would cooperate and help each other when needed.
There is power in people supporting each other and standing united as one, a power that social media is allowing us to spread across the world.