Home » 2021 as seen by Facebook and Instagram: the year of social activism, from gender identity to the environment

2021 as seen by Facebook and Instagram: the year of social activism, from gender identity to the environment

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From gender identity to femicide, up to human rights and energy saving. 2021 was a year in which social networks represented a privileged space for public debate, in particular on civil rights and environmental protection. This is revealed by Meta, which has published a report where it analyzes the most used words on Facebook and Instagram in Italy during 2021. The document reports the terms that, most of all, recorded peaks in use within the posts and of comments in the last year.

Social networks as a space for political activism
The report offers a number of interesting insights. Inside, there is first of all a photograph of the topics that have characterized the last two pandemic years, from the state of emergency to the vaccine. But there is something that emerges, most of all: the role of social networks as a privileged space for political activism.

After all, 2021 was the year of the consolidation of the role of influencers in the public debate. It all started with the Zan DDL, with the social campaigns that accompanied its journey in Parliament and the involvement of influencers and public figures – even unsuspected ones, such as Alessandra Mussolini. In our country, the discussion on the bill on homotransphobia has symbolically opened the field to what is called the Netflix policy. In other words, at the entrance, in the political debate, of subjects who are not politicians, such as influencers or any of us, who intervene on single issues, without a complete political vision, and who have at their disposal an audience that they can reach with ease on social networks.

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The explosion of politics on Instagram and Facebook is evident from the Meta report. In the analysis, there are words related to gender identity, such as sexual orientation and transphobia, and a series of terms related to social issues more generally, such as divorce or human rights. In the same context, there is the attention to environmental sustainability: among the most used words on Instagram and Facebook in 2021 there are biodiversity and sustainable mobility.

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The pandemic behind the explosion of social activism
This is a change that we have all undergone, in a relatively short time. But what happened? As with many things in the post-March 2020, it is undeniable that the pandemic and the lockdown have played a role. It was in those months, in fact, that an even greater part of the life of each of us moved into the digital space. We started using social networks more often. And we also started looking for a series of information for which we used to look elsewhere. There is a report entitled Navigating the ‘infodemic’, from the Reuters Institute, which reveals the news consumption habits of young people aged 18 to 24 in six European countries, including the UK, Spain and Germany. And he tells how one in two boys used Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok as their main sources to receive information during the pandemic.

On the other side of the smartphone, creators and influencers, short of experiences to tell, have begun to express their opinion on current affairs, on civil rights, on issues of a political nature. And they started doing it using formats – such as Instagram Stories or live broadcasts – that social network users are used to. And which, consequently, are easier to use. It is no coincidence that, according to a Buzzoole survey, over 8 out of 10 Italian users trust influencers when they talk about social issues. Because influencers use a language that we all use, in which each of us surfs for several hours a day.

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What’s beyond social networks?
If the spread of activism and politics within social networks can be considered good news, there are dark sides. In particular, there is the risk of deluding oneself that everything boils down to a post on Facebook, or an Instagram story. As Black Lives Matter founder Ayo Tometi explained at the Lisbon Web Summit in early November: “In an era of similar popularity for social media, it’s easy to share a quick message. But the point is not just that people share mere rhetoric: the point is real political change ”.

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In the report there is also space for other topics, other terms that tell the 2021 of Facebook and Instagram. If some of these are predictable, like Banksy, Jose Mourinho or the Måneskin, there are a few surprises. Like Pagliacci, an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, or the MAR (Art Museum of the city of Ravenna), which appear among the most posted and commented words related to art, culture and entertainment. In the health and wellness category, together with vegetarianism, breathing and pilates, there is also space for pole dance, a sport that is in fact increasingly practiced and posted on social networks – with the hashtag #poledance, over 10 million appear. of posts on Instagram.

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