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| ALIASupport |
Today I want to talk about a recent event in my life that
caused my own true realization of how incredibly powerful
participatory media is. I will share with you the story that has
taken place over the last few weeks of my life and you will come to better understand
my newfound passion and appreciation.
I am a proud member of a truly inspiring hip hop dance team
at Wilfrid Laurier University that is called ALIAS. Our name stands for,
A Legacy to Inspire Achieve & Share.
We only formed as a group in September and have since competed in two reputable
university wide competitions:
OUCH &
BYOB . We did extremely well at
both competitions, however, to me our placement does not matter, which is why,
despite our overall success, I am leaving that information out of this post.
The section of this story I would like to dwell on is specifically related to
support, but not just any support, support through participatory media.
Approximately a mere week before we competed at BYOB 2013 on
March 30
th, our choreographer and mentor came up with the incredible
idea of ALIASupport. The idea behind this was to use our
ALIAS hand symbol (which spells out ALIAS) in order to raise
awareness of our team, our drive and genuine intentions to inspire, achieve and
share in the dance community and beyond; most importantly, though, to get
people in our community that knew about us to personally get involved in
showing their individual support through taking a picture of themselves doing
our hand symbol with a blurb about themselves. They were then to post their
support on our
ALIASupport page on Facebook for everyone to see.
The support that started to rapidly roll in after this was
launched was unbelievable! By the end of the week we had received
over 100 pictures!!! In the dance
community, especially in the small Waterloo dance community, that is AMAZING.
Moreover, when individuals and teams from other schools outside of Waterloo
started taking part in this, it was most inspiring, as we understood this was a
real movement that had affected more people than we ever thought it would. As
sentimental and emotional as the thought of this makes me, reflecting back now,
I recognize that this would have been impossible without the magic of the
Internet and social media. The opportunities granted to us thanks to technology
are truly remarkable. Moreover, the ability to motivate action offline, such as
taking a picture individually or with a group, in order to support a cause you
believe in or in order to feel like a part of something bigger by contributing
something so simple goes to show us how people feed off of that online
connection to others - be it around
small town Waterloo or around the globe. The online public sphere and global
village connects us on a level we had never known prior to social media. It
allows for the cultivation of movements that have the ability to make a real
small or large scale impact as a result of speed, ease of use and personal connections.
Having said this, I realize it is necessary for me to thank
not just all of our contributing ALIASupporters but social media for making
this support movement possible. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Anyone who has ever said they cannot dance should be eating their words because when I see the hundreds or thousands of people that take part in viral dance videos online I know that there ARE moves simple enough for anyone to learn and fun enough to make everyone get up and dance! From Gagnum Style , to the Dougie , to the Harlem Shake (which I still don't technically consider a real dance), these videos have gone viral for a reason, and that is because everyone can join in the fun of doing them. What a great ice breaker and way to feel connected to people on the dance floor or around the world!
