The Text That Changed My Life - Week 5

On June 26^th 2015, like any other normal day I was browsing social media, which is part of my daily routine. Twitter, is one platform that I visit regularly and on this day #LoveWins was trending worldwide. This was after the Supremes’ Court ruling on marriage equality that reversed bans on same-sex marriage in 13 states and after seeing this hashtag it completely changed my life. My outlook on the world we lived in changed dramatically, because for once the only thing I could see around me was joy and happiness.

The world was finally moving forward in my eyes and was finally making a start in removing preordained stamps that only a man and woman could marry. This was a big breakthrough for the LGBT community, because one of the most religious countries broke traditional conventions of marriage. This issue trending worldwide on twitter helped to educate others about the subject and make people more open minded in learning about other people’s sexuality. The hashtag made me look at the world in a more positive way, as I felt it was helping to promote community cohesion, however it was rather upsetting that same sex marriage was only being legalised in 2015. Overall, it gave me confidence that hopefully other counties would follow suit.

This media text engaged me both emotionally and intellectually. It was very overwhelming for me to be hearing such news, it’s hard to describe how it made me feel I was just very relieved that is wasn’t too late to change and make a difference. It also taught me that the taboos of the old life can be changed, if we stick together and we can create positive outcomes. This media text made me appreciate the world more, it opened my eyes to the good in life and that there was more to all the awful news we hear every day. The hashtag changed my habits and media consumption, as now I actively look for the news that shows progression in the world, as well as the more serious news.

Everyone was affected by this hashtag in different ways. Many people, I think reacted in a similar way to myself and were very grateful that court case had the best possible outcome, however other people were more negative towards it. I think they didn’t feel overly joyful, because it had taken so long to stop discrimination of the LGBT community.