One thing about social media I’ve always disliked is the assumption that if people aren’t posting about an issue they don’t care. I know so many folks who use social media just to post about their families and don’t publicize that they are on the streets organizing/educating.

In fact, I know plenty of organizers—specifically—who intentionally do not post about certain issues precisely because they are on the streets working with the people and they don’t want to add to any surveillance they are already subjected to.

I also know many educators who don’t post about social issues on social media because they firmly believe where they contribute to the struggle is by creating lesson plans and engaging critical pedagogies that can’t be reduced to a couple hundred characters.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a conversation about why some folks feel they can be silent on/disengaged from certain issues (online as well as offline). But I do want to question social media culture that equates “being involved with an issue” with “posting.”

Let’s never forget that as much as these social media platforms have the capacity for democratizing knowledge, they were also birthed in the context of neoliberalism. There is a social currency to “posting” on social issues and “consuming” similar posts within this marketplace.

I personally use my social media to post about certain social issues because I see my engagement on these platforms as an extension of my work as an educator. Part of what I do is take topics I have studied and share them in different spaces, one of which is social media.

But if social media did not exist, I would continue doing my work as an educator. For me, this is a tool that I choose to use in a particular way that fits what I see as my vocation. But for many others, this is not that and they govern themselves accordingly.

The struggle towards liberation and transformation takes many forms, and we cannot present or know the full complexity/livelihood of a human being based on what they share on social media. So I’m careful to equate “posting” with “(non)engagement in the struggle.”