5 Of The Most Poignant Social Media Moments Of 2015
The 19th century had the telegraph as its means of communication, the 20th century sent ripples through the airwaves with the radio and the 21st century has social media in all its #glory to keep us connected.
In case you’ve forgotten, 2015 was the year that Madonna took a tumble right off stage, Jeremy Clarkson was shown the door by the BBC and Adele re-entered, centre stage, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Throughout a year of dizzying highs and devastating lows, social media continued to be an outlet for solidarity. We’ve put together five of our most poignant social media moments of 2015.
1. At around 21:20 on the 13th November, the first reports of the terrorist attacks in Paris began to appear on social media sites from eyewitnesses at the Stade de Franc. As these posts continued to flood in through the night and over the coming days, their purpose and intent changed as many deeply personal, first-hand accounts of the night were published which lead in no small part to the global hashtag PrayForParis. The world took to social media to show their solidarity with France.
2. “Today is a big step in our march toward equality”, tweeted President Obama June 26th, 2015, “Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins”, and in doing so sent the social media world into a frenzy of joy and elation. Endless messages of love and humanity were posted as were photos of parties and parades from across the globe, countless profile pictures were edited to incorporate the gay flag, and at the helm of it all was the hashtag, #LoveWins.
Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins
— President Obama (@POTUS) June 26, 2015
3. Summer 2015 saw a humanitarian emergency on the European continent as large numbers of civilians fled their homes in Syria and neighbouring countries. The photo of a Turkish police officer picking up Aylan Kurdi from the shore heralded a turning point in this crisis. Experts claim that the photo reached approximately 20 million people in just 12 hours whilst UNICEF reported a 636% surge in donations after the photos emergence.
4. The sun always shines in California, but on June 1st 2015, the spotlight was most definitely on Caitlyn Jenner who introduced herself to the world via an Instagram post. Caitlyn quickly knocked President Obama off the top spot as the person to receive a million Twitter followers the fastest in just over 4 hours, and needless to say, the whole thing caused quite a stir. At the foundation however were messages of support which flooded in under hashtags like #CallMeCait, #TransIsBeautiful #YouBeYou.
Another Jenner world record, and at 65? Who’da thought! Humbled & honored to have reached 1M followers in 4 hrs. Thank you for your support. — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 1, 2015
5) Then there was #TheDress. Is it blue and black? White and gold? On February 29th #TheDress was the top trending tag on Twitter with social media royalty such as Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres and KimYe all given their two cents. The answer? The dress is horrible and no-one should be wearing it. Case closed.
By Aisling Lewis
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