Your Activism Is Failing
It's election season, which means activism is everywhere. Facebook has 500% more political, economic, and controversial opinion posts on it. Everyone's an activist with an opinion that must be shouted to hundreds of people who couldn't care less.People share articles in an attempt to raise awareness for what they think is important. I get that. That's a noble goal. But today, it's a fruitless venture because it's no longer activism.
Activism? Slacktivism.
Slacktivismˈslaktəˌvizəm/noun informalactions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g., signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website.Slacktivism is the new activism. It's hard in our high-paced society to have time for much else. Thankfully, you don't have to. Just share the latest opinion piece from your favorite biased news source, and you're done!Too bad it doesn't work.
Slactivism Doesn't Work
Pick a hot topic from any year. #BringBackOurGirls, ISIS, Harambe, Cecil the Lion, Black Lives Matter, #Kony2012, you name it. Each of these has had literally millions of people who talked about it online. They spread awareness and made these issues go viral.Unfortunately, that's as far as it went. We now know that the majority of people believe in a cause. Great. Who's going to do something about it first? Nobody? Didn't think so.But it's not like raising awareness hurts anything, right?Wrong.
Escalates Conflict
With any social issue, it must eventually come to an end. Activism, as we know it today, does the opposite. Social justice warriors take to their computers and tell the story of a bad guy. A group out there with detestable qualities that must be stopped. The problem is, there's no way to know who is a part of this group.We know racists exist, but have no idea where or how many. We know that corrupt politicians exist, but not which ones they are. Raising awareness is no longer a call to action, but a call to fear. A call to become angry at an imaginary group that for all we know has been long since irradicated.
The Most Aware and Useless Generation
I recently downloaded a messaging app Google created called Allo. It comes with a Google assistant that can message me the weather, events, and even top news headlines at whatever time I ask it to.The All-American Rejects band had it right when they sang that "The future has arrived". We have access to any information we want and free market competition makes resources cheaper than before. How are we not doing more?So, how are we not doing more?If the only thing that gets us to lift a finger is a scathing article from the Huffington Post, we're failing. The people we expect to solve these issues are expecting someone else to take care of it too!
Don't Be a Slacktivist
Make the decision today to do more. To avoid slacktivism in favor of more effective methods such as contacting legislators, volunteering, and even just informing yourself on what the true issues and solutions really are.Deescalate conflict by seeing both sides of issues and being a peacemaker rather than the one we all block on Facebook because of your comment debates.Fix our stereotype. Millenials are great at being slacktivists. But that translates to being horrible at fixing things. It's a shame that this generacism (generation racism) exists. Anyone within about 10 years of my age group is known for being lazy and changing little.Time for a change. Support a cause with your actual support.Follow Ryan Matlock on Twitter.