A revolution through a hashtag, a human connection through an internet connection, a furnished home through a donation link. Social media is a vital tool for activism, community building and resource allocation.

Social media has become a virtual safe space for communication especially since the start of the Arab Spring in 2010. Users have employed Facebook to organize and inspire one another, even helping to bring down a government such as the case of the "We Are All Khaled Said" Facebook campaign, which helped lead to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Social media have enabled users to overcome censorship, as is the case of Weibo and WeChat users, who post in code to bypass China's censorship bots.

Social media is more than a platform for activism; it has become a hub for community building and accessing resources across the globe. California is no exception; with its diverse population, home to over 10 million immigrants, one can find many California-based social media pages that cater to immigrants in various ways.

Whether raising donations for refugees and hosting social events, like the Facebook group Cali Syrian Ladies, or organizing peaceful protests, as the Armenian-American community did in the March for Justice, or the Tuesday Night Project page advertising performances by Asian-American artists, social media platforms are being utilized by immigrant communities across California.

With smoke from a hookah pipe dancing to the tune of Fairuz songs playing on a radio, and the sounds of chatter and plates clanking, Monira Assali and Hana Kossa sat in a small cafe in Huntington Beach. As the light from their smartphones illuminated their faces, they talked about their Facebook group for Syrian women in California.

Assali and Kossa, who had separately immigrated to California around 30 years ago, met during a protest organized by another Facebook group for Syrian-Americans. Since then, they have set up their own Facebook group, Cali Syrian Ladies, designed to help newly arrived immigrants and refugees from their home country.

"We started our group to help each other, and help the new people with our experience," Assali said. "I've been here for 30 years, so I have experience and I can help the new people with what they need. Sometimes, they don't know a lot of things, and they need people, just to feel like they're welcome here."

The Facebook group, which has grown to nearly 600 members in the past two years, arranges a variety of services.

"We try to make some donations, gather some furniture for the refugees and help people with their businesses," Assali said.

Besides helping newcomers get acclimated with their new environments, Kossa explained, social media has played an important role in uniting people separated by the war.

"[Social media] brought us together, even though we can't see each other," she said. "It brought us together in the same moment and the same time. We always talk, and we don't feel like we're alienated. Communication has become easy; messaging is easy. Even if were geographically distant, we're still together."

Monira and Hanah discuss their Facebook group.

Kossa's family is scattered across Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Germany and the United States.

Assali looks back on when she first came to the United States: "It's way easier than when I first came. I remember I called my mom... It was about $2.99 a minute -- that's a lot of money. Now you can call for free on WhatsApp," she said, gesturing to her iPhone.

Cali Syrian Ladies combines members who support and oppose the Syrian regime, and who are of different sects and religions. Where that might have caused conflict and dissent in different settings, the women of the group get along, meeting in social gatherings and coming together to help refugees in California.

"I want Syrians to love each other," said Assali, her smile now fading and voice cracking, "because you know, we are all over; it's just bad, really bad. After these four or five years, everybody has a different opinion; everybody is fighting with the other [about] religion and government. We keep fighting."

Kossa believes that the members of the Facebook group have a close relationship. Whether celebrating Mother's Day together, giving gifts, helping someone pay their rent or guiding someone on the right brand of fries to buy, the group maintains active relationships.

"You really feel like we're one family," Kossa said. "We're always happy when we meet. There are no problems-that’s the most important thing, and everyone's on the same page. We're not friends, we're sisters."

Social media has proved that it can facilitate networks across the globe to bring together people with a common cause or a shared identity-even if it is merely through their phone screens.

A 2014 study by Rianne Dekker and Godfried Engbersen of Erasmus University Rotterdam concluded that social media is transforming migration networks by providing important communication channels that have been facilitating connectivity with family in home countries, creating new social ties in host countries, and enabling users to access information that is useful for integration into new communities.

Tara Franz, a user experience researcher at Facebook who wrote a research paper about the use of the internet in diasporas, believes that social media is helping people make more informed decisions about immigration.

"The way in which people can now travel and transport themselves through crowdsourced group findings, through social media, I would imagine would pretty dramatically change the process for immigration. It changes the process of how we travel for fun, so it would also change how we travel for moving purposes," she said.

Some lawyers, however, warn their immigration clients about the repercussions of posting on social media. Armen Taslakian, a former immigration attorney based in L.A., explained that most clients are concerned with getting permanent residency. He advises them not to use social media because immigration officers are free to check what they post and that can throw off their case.

"They say in law generally, and this applies to immigration too, only answer the questions you've been asked," Taslakian said. "Don’t give them anything else. And if you're posting on social media, you're giving them more than they asked."

Caroon Gharakhanian, an immigration attorney also based in L.A., echoes that notion, saying that social media "isn't a narrative we necessarily get to control." Posted content can be interpreted in different ways by the viewer, and often immigration officers can view what is posted.

Nonetheless, social media continues to be an integral part of the immigration process and its aftermath.

Social media has become a vital tool for organizing and activism. The 160,000-person "March for Justice" in the streets of Los Angeles on April 24, 2015-one of the largest protests in the city's history-proved it to be true for the region's large Armenian-American population.

Razmig Sarkissian, 25, was among the organizers of the "March for Justice," a peaceful protest commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-18 that claimed the lives of over 1.5 million Armenians. Marchers demanded recognition and reparations from Turkey, which continues to deny that its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed genocide.

The march was organized by the Armenian Genocide Committee, a community coalition of pan-Armenian organizations. Within that group, Sarkissian represented the Armenian Youth Federation and was a part of the media committee, tasked with focusing on social media outreach and outreach to non-Armenian media.

Tuesday Night Cafe, one of the longest-running free arts series in downtown Los Angeles, combines a physical, authentic space and the open range of social media to create a meeting ground for people to connect through artistic expression.

The event, started in 1998, seeks to provide a safe community space for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and other residents of Greater Los Angeles. A single Facebook event post brings together people of both similar and dissimilar heritages for the sake of creative expression.

Natalie Casteneda at the Tuesday Night Cafe on Aug. 1, 2017.

Quincy Surasmith, the associate producer and communications manager of Tuesday Night Cafe, said, "It's not about numbers or followers. It's about who we connect and who we can bring in." The event is held on the first and third Tuesday of each month and since its conception has presented 2,350 performances to its ever-growing audience. With close to 4,000 followers on Facebook, the community formed online is one that cannot exist without a path back to the people themselves, Surasmith said: "This is a physical space; that's what we are trying to build. We are not just building our community on the Internet. [The internet] is just a way we can share stuff and connect with people."

Tuesday Night Cafe is a grass-roots organization, surviving solely on donations from the community. Because of that, Tuesday Night Cafe showcases pride and gratitude during each performance, for each person in the audience wants to be there, Surasmith said.

As he explained: "We'd rather have this space filled with 250 people in the chairs than have 100,000 people. It doesn't mean we don't want more people coming in. We just don't want some empty followers. We want meaningful connections."

By taking advantage of the all-inclusivity of social media, Surasmith and the Tuesday Night Cafe crew are doing just that-making meaningful connections.

When Yuefeng Zhang arrived from China in 2014 to begin his undergraduate studies at USC, the campus chapter of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association immediately took him under its wing.

"I was inspired," Zhang said. "Everyone at CSSA were warm and friendly. They picked me up from the airport, told me how to open a bank account, a mobile account and almost everything! Since then I joined in CSSA, and now it's my fourth year."

Zhang, in fact, is now the president of the USC chapter. He is also a graduate student majoring in Computer Science.

CSSA, the largest Chinese student organization at USC, holds various events for students. It posts all its events on social media, relying mainly on WeChat, China's most popular social media app.

"Chinese students often follow us on WeChat, and Indian students prefer Facebook. We are trying to convince Korean students to use WeChat because 10 percent of our posts have an English version," Zhang said.

CSSA posts on WeChat public accounts almost every day. The topics range widely: career fairs, academic lectures, tuition payments, course registration, health insurance, culture festivals, housing, car rental, safety and transportation.

Every year, CSSA creates at least five WeChat groups for incoming Chinese students, said Zhang, who created some of them. He said some students call him at 3 o'clock in the morning to ask for help with their emergencies. CSSA has helped some students who have safety issues to contact the Chinese Embassy and USC, and raised funding through social media for their families.

"Actually, CSSA is not only limited to Chinese students. Our events serve all the students on campus," Zhang said. "I feel that if we just set up our groups within Chinese students, do not share information with other communities, the group will become worse and worse."

Whether one is browsing social media to waste time, to share funny cat videos or to stay up to date, when the scrolling stops, and the wandering glances become fixated stares, one can understand the true power of the medium to influence change, build strong bonds and assist those in need.

Found on the wall in Hana Kossa's restaurant, Ramaneh, in Huntington Beach.

The ability to mobilize, help others and connect has been reduced to a few clicks, and has undoubtedly become a helpful hand, guiding the immigrant into new worlds and still serving as a link to what has been left behind.

"[Social media] brought us together in the same moment and the same time," said Hana Kossa, of Cali Syrian Ladies. "Even if we're geographically distant, we're still together."