Social Media Spurs the Cancellation of the New York City Marathon

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the cancellation of the New York City Marathon late Friday afternoon. For the first time in 42 years, more than 45,000 runners from across the globe will not be crossing the finish line in Central Park on Sunday afternoon. Though Bloomberg originally stated that the marathon would still go on, to show that New York City was not defeated by Hurricane Sandy, vocal protests from his constituents and fellow politicians such as former Mayor Giuliani spurred an eleventh hour change of plans. Social media, in particular, played a huge roll in organizing petitions supporting the cancellation of the marathon. Those who wanted cancellation asked why police –more than 1000 of which were dispatched to help with the 2011 marathon- should be diverted from recovery efforts at a time when many in the five boroughs still had no power, heat, or safe water to drink. Similarly, supporters of cancellation argued that supplies such as generators, food, blankets, and bottled water could be diverted from the marathon and used to help those who had been affected by Hurricane Sandy. Almost 30,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the CEO of the New York Road Runners Association, Mary Wittenberg, to cancel the marathon. Upward of 45,000 people took to Facebook to show their support for cancellation, and people vocalized their opinions on the official pages for both the New York Road Runners and the New York Marathon. Social media is quickly becoming a key way in which we, as a country, integrate classical Greek ideas about democracy into our American political system. Philosophers such as Aristotle, who believed that man is "a political animal" –that we are at our most human when we participate in politics- thought that the ideal democracy would be one in which all citizens gathered to face the challenges presented by living in a collective. In America, what we have most closely resembles a trusteeship vision of democracy, or one in which we elect officials to debate and make political decisions for the collective society. Social media presents the public with a way to easily engage in political causes, and make their opinions known, effectively giving it a greater say in the political process. While it's unclear whether Aristotle would have considered Twitter and Facebook to be legitimate forms of political contribution, there is no doubt that they provide a platform for the public to make its opinions known.

Rate this posting:

{[['']]}