A 14-year-old boy named Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock to his high school that he made himself, to show a teacher. Police arrested him on suspicion of making a “hoax bomb”– even though they acknowledged that it was just a clock. There was a ton of outrage, as you can imagine, but along with that came so much more support, even from technology’s biggest names, including the CEO of Facebook. “Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you, keep building!” -Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Once news broke out of Ahmed’s arrest, social media went wild. Hashtags #IStandWithAhmed and #FreeAhmedMohamed went viral on all forms of social media, especially twitter. This was such a big controversy that even President Barack Obama got involved. President Obama extended an invitation to the White House via twitter to Ahmed, and encouraged him to continue to stay curious and keep his creativity going. “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” stated President Obama. Although charges were eventually dropped against Ahmed, the wrong doings and stereotypical behavior of all parties involved in his arrest will live on in social media infamy.
Negative stereotypes continue to be around us, and although very negative, I think it’s great how social media can allow for people to come together and to spread support, and positive messages during hard times. While reading into this story my eyes were opened to how powerful communication and social media have become in today’s day and age. People around the country, and even around the world were able to voice their opinions, and statements of support to Ahmed, encouraging him and unifying what seems to now be such a divided country. When used properly, social media can do wonderful things. This was just an example of one of them.
(http://www.wired.com/2015/09/heres-bomb-clock-got-ahmed-mohamed-arrested/)
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Great point on how society reacts to stereotyping. It’s so sad that just because of this young boy’s appearance, he was thought of as a possible threat to society and he’s only 14. Congrats to social media for getting this story headlined all across the US to let people know that stereotyping is wrong. I have to wish the best of luck to Ahmed for having such a creative mind and positive outlook after being nationally broadcasted as a threat to society.
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I agree. I heard about this and thought it was such a terrible act of stereotyping. This just goes to show the power of social media and what it can do to influence decisions in the real world. More children should look up to Ahmed and aspire to be as brilliant as he is at such a young age. Best of luck to Ahmed he has a bright future!
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