Are social media and conformity making the ‘Woke Culture’ superficial?

Chitrali | Ashoka University, Sonepat

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The ongoing Black Lives Matter global protests have gained massive momentum once again. In the midst of that I could not help but go back and listen to Erykah Badu’s famous song ‘Master Teacher’. As she sang “I stay woke” in her deep, resonant voice I was reminded of the social media trend - #StayWoke. Originating in the context of racial injustices towards African Americans, woke has come a long way. Its message has been expanded and adopted by societies all over the world to address social injustices at home. The hashtag has rightly given voice to the rights of LGBTQ and transgender communities. At the same time it has brought media attention to atrocities against minorities and the marginalised. It has driven people to become more aware, conscious and well-informed global citizens.

But somewhere along the line, its message has been diluted. In a matter of time, it went about from becoming a teen slang to being used to call attention to frivolous things. Celebrities began preaching and continued to overlook their million instances of hypocrisies and empty talks. From memes to ironies, the woke culture soon became symbolic of shallow, attention seeking folks. But woke was never meant to be superficial. Then what happened? Why does every #woke seems more like a sham than a conscious voice against social injustices? An answer might lie in our social behaviour.

Social psychologists say that in society people often take the route of conformity to co-exist with the other members of the group. Navigating through an uncertain social world, we tend to conform i.e. voluntarily alter our behaviours in accordance with the people around us. Greater the uncertainty, the higher are the chances of conformity (Sherif, 1935, 1936). On a daily basis, we conform with our peer groups and immediate surroundings on so many levels that we hardly notice it. It goes about from something as basic as wearing the latest H&M t-shirt as your friends do to your political inclination. As much of these actions do not happen consciously, there are chances of them having negative consequences.

For instance, with the widespread coverage of events around the world and decentralised communication networks you get conflicting information from various sources. In the state of half or complete lack of knowledge, we might cling to the information that we receive at the earliest and also from a more influential source. Thanks to social media we don’t take more than a few seconds to convert that information into a post, a tweet, a retweet or a story accompanied with our beloved #woke. We are so used to this system of one-click activism that we hardly pause to look out for the truth. Never take a break to peel the second layer of the information to uncover the pseudo-activism that lies beneath.

Accompanying that is the normative social influence that leads to constant fear of social rejection (Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B., 1955). Rejection for not being in trend. There’s pretence to fit in according to the social norms even if one doesn't relate with them. In the end it is about what signal one might be sending across to their social groups, fans or followers. There is more need to be seen as ‘woke’ than to be one in real life. Owing to that social influence, we come across ignorant social-media stars who make it more about them than the actual victims.

This goes without saying that many people then consider woke to be an end in itself. Representing their woke self in Instagram stories, people acquire a sense of achievement. It is imperative to realise that more than anything woke is a process. Awareness of the brutal realities around you and not living in denial of them is just the first step. The woke culture does not seek public display of your degree of 'wokeness' but private conformity and praxis. Conforming to the idea of equality, social justice and liberty in public, but overlooking the atrocities against marginalised in your own backyard does not make one woke.

If we don't understand our own behaviour while associating ourselves with our social setting, then neither ‘woke’ nor any other appellation will be able to stand against the allegation of being facile. Woke will continue to become a travesty of social justice and activism. Not because it is, but because it has been characterised as such. Even when we continue to work towards the underlying values of terms like ‘woke’ that are in trend, their everyday manifestations and adaptations will continue to become digressive.

Lastly, it is not to conclude that conformity is bad or that social media has not decentralised information transference for the benefit of the masses. But to draw parallels between our social behaviour and its ramification on social and political movements like ‘woke’. Woke culture should not suffer a downfall because of our shallow understanding of it. It's time we stop asserting ourselves to be woke and start questioning, “Am I really woke?”

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References

1. Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B. (1955). A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51(3), 629–636. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046408

2. Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, 27(187) .