Adam Smith believes that humans have adopted moral values that can be universally understood, this happens due to similar mundane experiences in modern human society, and with these shared experiences we are able to imagine ourselves in the positions of others. Quoting the opinion of Sugiono (1996) moral sentiments possessed by humans are a product of a voluntary agreement that enables us to imaginarily position ourselves with others. This imagined position creates what is referred to as sympathy. Then, moral values are created due to individuals voluntary agreement on collective experiences. However, what happens when this imaginary position is hampered by significant distance? The limit of proximity is a criticism of the universal moral theory argued by David Hume in the writings of Fonna Forman-Barzilai (2010) distance then becomes an obstacle to human sympathy. The application of this understanding in the contemporary world can be reversed with the existence of media to connect the distant; social media.
In this age, rapid flow of information on social media creates discourse and fast information (Unwin, 2012) discourse happens due to different perspectives and moral sentiments of individuals who come to dialogue. The writer would like to acknowledge the fact that social media and discourse on social media platforms can provide a space to build sympathy that is not inhibited by distance, but creates sympathy through a new medium. The use of social media has helped people around the world to care about humanitarian issues that occur in distant places and spark political activism in all parts of the world. The genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people is a massive occurrence in the international world that has sparked political activism. Discourse, pragmatic actions of humanitarian actions from individuals and forms of political activism on social media are a manifestation of universal moral values that are no longer shackled by distance.
Social media plays a significant role as a tool for dissemination of information that can create mobilization of political movements and propaganda. This mobilization happens due widespread news, graphic imagery of incident much like the genocide in Palestine and other content of crises around the world creates humanitarian actions as a response. Space is not an obstacle for sympathy, social media fulfills the role of displaying incidents in far and near parts of the world. Users of social media actively engaging in responding to conflict and incidents much like the genocide in Palestine can use social media as a platform to respond and voice out a ‘solution’ or to simply help provide aid to the people in need. Responses over humanitarian crises built from sympathy is proved by a number of humanitarian movements on the media to show support and voice out opinion on the oppression and genocide faced by the Palestinian people. Platforms such as instagram and X (formerly twitter) have been utilized to create digital movements and raise awareness regarding the genocide in Palestine. Various hashtags, and symbols and crowdfunding for humanitarian aids were created and showcased in solidarity for Palestinians. Small gestures and symbolisms create larger movements in the hopes of ending violence, injustice and the nihility of the international world to stop this genocide.
The writer argues that the activism created from responses is a form of collective will to influence change and create pragmatic solutions to change the status quo. The exposure of information related to the humanitarian crisis has given birth to a variety of protests using non violent actions around the world; the practice of human sympathy. Waves of nonviolent actions in response of the genocide created organized actions such as walk outs in solidarity and other actions such as protest that demands a ceasefire. Proving an argument by Saida and Alhouseini (2023) public participation in politics and political issues is derived from humanitarian sentiments, it can be argued that this is the product of the imaginary positioning that we humans experience. In conclusion, widespread participation in social media has the power to create tangible responses that can drive the political situation in the international world. It starts with the simplest elements in an individual, namely through thoughts on moral values, how moral values are manifested can vary. The relevance of social media as a forum for connecting sympathy is manifested in the political actions of various members of society. In the view of the moral sentiment theory, human responses are created through these voluntary agreements that place ourselves in the position of another individual, and efforts are realized in the actions that are perpetuated in movements supported by social media and realized through pragmatic actions.