Vivimarie Van Der Poorten’s Advocacy for Peace through Facebook

Abstract

This study focuses on Vivimarie Van Der Poorten’s contribution to promoting peace through her Facebook wall. Inhabitants of society deal with violence, social inequality, and cynical human affairs. This qualitative research uses her poems, translated works, prose, and other shared ideas to examine how Facebook can serve as a platform for peace advocacy and social awareness. Facebook has a tremendous impact on the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of daily life. While social media users often share content that promotes hate speech, radical ideologies, or violence, this paper explores whether peace-oriented communication can instead foster understanding and coexistence. Therefore, this paper examines the creative way that Vivimarie has used technology to convey messages that evoke both intellectual and emotional responses while emphasising social responsibility. Utilising textual analysis and hermeneutic interpretation, the study analyses selected Facebook posts addressing themes of peace, conflict, memory, and reconciliation. Ultimately, the present study finds that social media functions as a double-edged tool whose impact depends on user engagement, capable of fostering empathy, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence when used constructively. It also reveals that unchecked ignorance and harmful discourse can transform these platforms into destructive spaces that erode life-affirming values and collective social memory. The study contributes to emerging scholarship on digital peace advocacy within the Sri Lankan context.