I’m speaking in a very broad sense here. It did turn into a trend because that is the nature of social media and the trend died because that’s just what happens when you emulate reality
The substance of what happened after the murder of george floyd wasn’t a social media trend, it was major In Real Life, Away From Keyboard events such as demonstrations, riots and occupations in which millions of people participated. That wasn’t emulating reality, that was reality.
The popularity online were products of those. The hashtags declined in popularity as the IRL AFK events petered out, which was due to lack of formal structure and organization. Riots are exhausting and will eventually be suppressed unless they turn into something. It was a “trend” that “died”.
So far the 2 situations are unalike because there has been zero mass mobilizations in this case. It’s entirely a social phenomena.
I’m speaking in a very broad sense here. It did turn into a trend because that is the nature of social media and the trend died because that’s just what happens when you emulate reality
The substance of what happened after the murder of george floyd wasn’t a social media trend, it was major In Real Life, Away From Keyboard events such as demonstrations, riots and occupations in which millions of people participated. That wasn’t emulating reality, that was reality.
The popularity online were products of those. The hashtags declined in popularity as the IRL AFK events petered out, which was due to lack of formal structure and organization. Riots are exhausting and will eventually be suppressed unless they turn into something. It was a “trend” that “died”.
So far the 2 situations are unalike because there has been zero mass mobilizations in this case. It’s entirely a social phenomena.