Following Social Media’s Powerful Yet Illusory Ukraine War Feed
We see it but can’t know it
Social media is making the war in Ukraine feel simultaneously closer and more distant.
There’s so much information at my fingertips, yet I feel more powerless than ever. I can see what’s happening almost in real time and experience intense horror and sadness, but also wonder how I can reach through the tweets, TikToks and videos to help, soothe, protect, stop.
The power of social media, a thing we’ve been pillorying for years, is once again ascendant in this moment. It’s how we hear the resolve in Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s voice and see the video from inside the nuclear plant moments after it’s been captured.
It’s once again where we argue facts and policy, and pit one opinion against another. The difference in this moment is that social media is, unusually, almost entirely united in sentiment and purpose. The support for Ukraine and its people feels universal, though we know it isn’t.
But for all the discussion, news, and links that tell us how to help, it feels like our faces are pressed up against the hard glass of a calamity. We see it so clearly but cannot reach it.
That’s not the case everywhere, obviously.
