Social Media > Disco

                In a New York Times article written last June called Internet Geeks and Freaks, author Virginia Heffernan argues that the reason minorities revel in social media’s culture is the same reason these groups also reveled in the disco movement of the 1970’s. She contends that the reason that this culture composed of women, homosexuals, and nonwhites embrace the new age of social media so enthusiastically is because it is a chance to take a stand against the establishment. A chance to look at the conservative, rich, white males of society and the popular norms they have established and rebel. She predicts a time in the near future where these conservative white males of society will fight back just as they did in the 1970s with anti-disco riots intended to destroy disco and return music to an age of rock and roll. Heffernan implies that cyber riots similar in nature will arise soon and look to return the web to its former days.

                Heffernan is dead-on with her point that just as disco gave these minorities a chance to express themselves to all of America, so does social media give these same groups an opportunity for constant self-expression. You no longer have to be well-educated and well-spoken for the world to hear you; instead all you have to do is be different to get your 15 minutes of fame. This is best illustrated in Twitter and YouTube, Heffernan uses the example of Antoine Dodson who became an internet sensation when his quote on rape, “Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband, because they’re raping everybody out here”