Blog post #3: Lessons Learned

Three lessons I learned about myself and how each will help my career, my work on the Grand Challenge of Building Healthy Relationships to End Violence, and the field of social work.

1. There is power in my personal story and my why.

– My career: My why reminds me that I have come far, and that I have a passion for continuing this work and helping others.

– GC work: I can target my message to an audience by using storytelling and my why to emotionally connect and incite action on GC cause.

– Field of social work: I am able to contribute my work to the field because of my why and my experience. I can also contribute to other related issues within the field, such as mental health and trauma healing, and more broadly to gender-based violence.

2. I have to target my message to a wider audience in order to shift existing perspectives.

– My career: In my work I have to consider the audience in terms of the professional words I use to ensure I am inclusive.  

– GC work: I have to work from where the audience is and target the message specifically to them, considering that they are likely unfamiliar with perspectives outside of what they have been exposed to from mass and social media.

– Field of social work: For an audience of social workers, it is important to remember common values and guidelines, but also that the type of work each person does can be so different. So, I should not make presumptions about the audience perspective, but use the commonality to guide the dialogue and shift existing paradigms.

3. I do not enjoy posting and engaging through social media.

– My career: It can help my career to engage more online with the community I work with and invest more in building a network, despite not enjoying the process.

– GC work: I do see it as more important for me to engage online with leaders and organizations working on my GC. It can be a powerful tool to build connections and spread awareness.

– Field of social work: Social media has the power to reach those that normally would not walk through the door. It can empower the field to use social media for this purpose and to provide information to a wider audience, but with caution and considerations for vulnerable populations.

New ways to influence public discourse on domestic violence

Mass media coverage of DV has increased during the past year due to the rapid rise of cases during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the most notable discourse has been on social media, where hashtags and viral videos spread information about DV much faster and widely than traditional media. An example of the powerful influence of social media on the issue of DV is the hand signal that went viral on TikTok this past Summer.

The Tik-Tok video shows how victims of DV can covertly and safely let someone know that they need help during a video chat. Originally promoted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the signal has spread widely around the world as a tool for victims of abuse (Rolfe, 2020). Of course, it requires both people on the video to know the signal and recognize what it means, along with knowing the right action to take afterwards, since raising alarms may put the victim of DV in a dangerous position. Aside from these issues, the new signal has the potential of saving lives, especially during a time when victims of DV are most vulnerable, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic, where they are even more isolated from support networks.

The viral video shows the power of social media as a tool to lead public discourse and spread awareness about DV. In addition, social media itself can be part of the intervention and prompt action by involving the mass population in distributing an important message. Simply put, social media should not be discounted as a powerful platform for public discourse, but the message must be thoughtful and complete in order to consider both positive and negative consequences it may have on the impacted population.

Rolfe, B. (2020, June 8). The hand signal going viral on TikTok that could save lives. Yahoo! News. https://au.news.yahoo.com/the-hand-signal-going-viral-on-tik-tok-that-could-save-lives-024642984.html