People who are interested in politics can engage in movements as sympathizers, elders, and contributors. There are several reasons why people take part in social movements.
For instance, some people advocate for women’s rights and the guidelines protecting consumers as well as environment, urge for the termination of lynching, demand for the right of union’s formation among workers, and request for federal minimum salaries and advanced income tax.
In other instances, social movements are aimed at demanding for proper housing, health care, work leaves, and appropriate insurance plans (Harper & Leicht, 2011). It is worth noting that the politically ambitious people can end up as critical socialists, ultimate dreamers, or unreasonable visionaries.
There are several theories regarding social movements, which aim at exploring the key drive towards collective behavior. It is imperative to note that every stratum of the society has social movements. Moreover, people consider the available options and engage in decision making before joining a particular social movement. For joining a successful social movement, there has to be continuous mobilization of resources.
Resources include plans, followers, and funds. These resources are extremely important for the social movement to fulfill its goals (Harper & Leicht, 2011). Social movements compete for the members for a number of reasons. While competing for the followers, social activists end up competing against each other for finite resources.
A successful social movement has strategic ways of acquiring resources and mobilizing the followers. Not once was I requested by a movement organization to donate funds to and engage in advocating for a particular issue. This was common at university where the students engage in a number of social movements. In my opinion, it is imperative for an individual to scrutinize the social movement before joining it.
Some social movements have questionable ambitions. Others gather resources for the benefit of their own interests (Harper & Leicht, 2011). Consequently, they use a particular voiceless group in the society to push for their agendas. I once joined a movement that was advocating for better care of people residing in slums and having HIV/ AIDS.
This was done after a comprehensive research on that movement to establish that it was genuine. I also attended one of the events and saw the deprived conditions these people were living in.
Some movements were appealing. However, there were barriers that contributed to my infrequent attendance. A majority of the people in the society negatively view social movements. My friends discouraged me to join that movement since they shared negative opinion about it. Consequently, our friendship suffered as we were always arguing about my involvement in that social movement.
Some social movements can be regarded as repulsive if campaigns are turned into movements. Charities play a key role in facilitating the development of campaigns into movements (Harper & Leicht, 2011). However, when movements are sincerely driven by its supporters and have a genuine purpose, they do not interfere in society’s activities. Some movements use online activism, which involves using social sites to attract the followers.
Using offline activism generates a sense of passion and momentum. Genuine movements should consider the option of using online services for gaining public. However, strategic measures have to be taken to ensure that people do not speculate the movement. Moreover, the movement using social networking services should consider that not everybody uses Twitter and Facebook.
Reference
Harper, C.L., & Leicht, K.L. (2011).Exploring social change: America and the world (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.