Student Activism and Social Media After Parkland

As I have been thinking about digital citizenship and activism this week, I’m struck by how easy it is to underestimate the power of our social media interactions. This week’s topic on digital citizenship and activism hits especially close to home.

I teach in Broward County, Florida, the district where the tragic 2018 Parkland school shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In the weeks that followed, I witnessed my own students, along with thousands across the district, rise up with a sense of purpose and urgency. They didn’t wait for permission. They organized protests, held walkouts, and flooded social media with calls for action. Many of them were participating in digital activism for the first time, and doing it with thoughtfulness, empathy, and conviction.

Reading Can Media Literacy Education Increase Digital Engagement in Politics? by Kahne & Bowyer (2019) made me reflect deeply on those moments. The article emphasizes the importance of digital engagement literacies, skills that help individuals not only consume information but also create and share it responsibly in political and civic contexts. That’s exactly what I saw from my students. They weren’t just reposting hashtags; they were informing their peers, challenging policymakers, and pushing for change.

The March for Our Lives movement was student-led, but social media was the megaphone. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube became tools for organizing, educating, and demanding attention from the world. The walkouts that took place in our school and others weren’t spontaneous. The students coordinated through Stories, DMs, hashtags, and digital flyers. That’s digital citizenship in action.

This experience reinforced for me how essential it is to create space in the classroom for these skills to grow. Students need media literacy, not just to navigate information, but to harness it for change. When we give them structured opportunities to analyze media and debate civic issues,  we’re not just helping them become better students, but we’re helping them become more informed and empowered citizens.