Data Blog Post #2

So like with every research project, gathering data is key and the more I search upon this #trashtag social media phenomina, the more information I find that helps me both sort and understand the impact of what this challenge has stirred upon the population.

Recently, I came across a video that highlighted some of the top 10 locations that have been impacted by those individuals participating in the challenge and it's some of the greatest pictures and video coverage that shows sites before and after being hit by the #trashtag. These are larger locations that show piles and piles of trash built up over beaches, rivers, parks, etc. More importantly, you can physically see the impact on the wildlife with the overall amount of garbage that infests these locations and see just how much of a difference there was. 




I was also able to find out the origin of the challenge. Although the #trashtag challenge has been around since 2015, when it was part of a campaign by the outdoor pursuits brand OCU, it recently blew up as a result of a post on Reddit where a user suggested it would be a good global challenge to "make the world a better place".

 

I have noticed that posts that have pictures pinned along with their message got a substantial amount of more attention, averaging a few thousand likes and retweets, which I can only assume is because of the power behind the pictures that showed just how much of a difference trash buildup makes in regards to the environment. Also, posts that had pictures were automatically retweeted and shared by various foundations and environmental pages that had a current update on successful #TrashTag projects. This only further increased the attention to the popular challenge responses and even got shared by bigger companies such as National Geographic and Discovery. With the pictures, it was easier for an audience to visualize the before and after process of various locations and showed the impact of the individual's efforts to clean their environment. Another thing that I found was that the posts surrounding the #TrashTag challenge that celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Zach King, all had used pictures to further spread the message, highlighting the true power behind attaching photos to show the stark effects of the challenge progress in some areas. Essentially the pictures were what made posts spreadable for an audience.


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