~*~
It's still invisible too!
Slacktivism, defined by the Urban Dictionary (next thing you know I'll be using Wikipedia citations) as:
Ahhhh ... remember the good old days? If you didn’t like the way things were you really had only two options - sit back and ignore it, or trudge out into the REAL world and fight it (which usually consisted of making picket signs, attending protest marches, writing multiple letters to the editor, and dialing hundreds of phone numbers - gathered from the phone book - using a rotary dial phone)!
No more! Now you can tell the world you support the invisible children of Uganda even though you likely cannot find Uganda on a world map! You can sign a petition to stop free closed captioning of TV programs from being eliminated. That's right! You can solve the world's problems with a retweet or a like/share on facebook!
There is no need to leave your sofa! Now you can be an activist without the risk ... well ... except for that damn carpel tunnel issue.
Just ask the Red Cross. Their national chapter has over 208,000 likes on Facebook and more than 200,000 twitter followers, yet in 2009, actual online monetary donations made up just 3.6% of private donations. In other words, hundreds of thousands of people like what the organization is doing (or at least want their "friends" to think they like what the organization is doing) and feel that liking what they are doing is good enough. Few are compelled to actually ... say ... spend their time or their money to show support.
In Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker essay titled Small Change, he points out that the lunch counter sit-in at the Woolworth's in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina - an event that launched a civil-rights war that engulfed the South for most of the 60's - happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter.
And unlike campaigns launched on social media networks, real change was made.
Funny what happens when the change you are fighting for involves personal risk. Not the risk that you'll be unfollowed by someone you don't even know on twitter, or unfriended by your BFF from high school's teen daughter. I'm talking risk that might cause you to be arrested, lose your job, or even be killed.
Real risk ... for real change ...
Sure, you're reblogging/liking/retweeting of the Kony 2012 video made you look "enlightened" to the 1,782 idiotic followers you have, but those children in Uganda?
Still "invisible".
And the change you think you are creating with your slacktivism?
the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem
Ahhhh ... remember the good old days? If you didn’t like the way things were you really had only two options - sit back and ignore it, or trudge out into the REAL world and fight it (which usually consisted of making picket signs, attending protest marches, writing multiple letters to the editor, and dialing hundreds of phone numbers - gathered from the phone book - using a rotary dial phone)!
No more! Now you can tell the world you support the invisible children of Uganda even though you likely cannot find Uganda on a world map! You can sign a petition to stop free closed captioning of TV programs from being eliminated. That's right! You can solve the world's problems with a retweet or a like/share on facebook!
There is no need to leave your sofa! Now you can be an activist without the risk ... well ... except for that damn carpel tunnel issue.
Just ask the Red Cross. Their national chapter has over 208,000 likes on Facebook and more than 200,000 twitter followers, yet in 2009, actual online monetary donations made up just 3.6% of private donations. In other words, hundreds of thousands of people like what the organization is doing (or at least want their "friends" to think they like what the organization is doing) and feel that liking what they are doing is good enough. Few are compelled to actually ... say ... spend their time or their money to show support.
In Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker essay titled Small Change, he points out that the lunch counter sit-in at the Woolworth's in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina - an event that launched a civil-rights war that engulfed the South for most of the 60's - happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter.
And unlike campaigns launched on social media networks, real change was made.
Funny what happens when the change you are fighting for involves personal risk. Not the risk that you'll be unfollowed by someone you don't even know on twitter, or unfriended by your BFF from high school's teen daughter. I'm talking risk that might cause you to be arrested, lose your job, or even be killed.
Real risk ... for real change ...
Sure, you're reblogging/liking/retweeting of the Kony 2012 video made you look "enlightened" to the 1,782 idiotic followers you have, but those children in Uganda?
Still "invisible".
And the change you think you are creating with your slacktivism?
It's still invisible too!
~*~
3 comments:
**Sigh** Where the hell is the retweet button?
Shout out the Occupy Wall Street crowd for putting it all on the line and actually protesting rather than just clicking "like" on Facebook.
Jay
Sunday Taylor, BWAHAHAHA! Or at the very least the "like" button ...
Jay (I'm With Stupid), well ... kind of ... except they didn't take much risk either. It wasn't like they had jobs or a home ... unless you count mom and dad's basement ;)
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