The hashtag is becoming the new
call-to-action. It’s connecting people across the world regardless if one person is in the US and the other is halfway across the globe. What was previously used for making phone calls is now an iconic symbol that is revolutionizing how we create social change.
Clearly, there are many different opinions on the effectiveness of slacktivism. Regardless of what one thinks about slacktivism, it is important to remember that the concepts of slacktivism may be the future of activism and social participation as we become more and more involved in the online world.
Slacktivism
Will your post go beyond the echo chamber of cyberspace?
The nonprofit, American A.L.S. Association, took in thirteen times the amount of donations in only 8 weeks than it had in the previous year. Additionally, in 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge was the fifth most popular Google search, which raised public awareness significantly. This combination led to a substantial increase in the annual research funding. Although the majority of people who donated have not done so again, the amount of money donated has remained 25% higher than it was before the Ice Bucket Challenge took off.
Another benefit of the challenge is that it reached a new audience. It’s typically difficult to get Millennials to donate organizations or movements. During the Ice Bucket Challenge, there was a decline
in the average age of donors to the A.L.S. Association. Before the challenge, the mean age of a typical donor was 50, but it decreased to 35 following the publicity. Even though the older demographic may be seen as an inactive audience online, they do benefit the cause. They're known as peripheral users. Unlike committed users, peripheral users are less active in social media. However, what they add to the cause is their spreading of the message over the internet. Even though their voice might not be heard and they may not have much influence, it is cited that this low-level commitment will eventually lead to activism in the future. Even though the ALS case did target Millennials, it's important to not discredit those who may not be as active on the web.
“According to Giving U.S.A., individual donations in the U.S. rose almost six per cent in 2014, which doesn’t suggest any cannibalization effect. Indeed, it’s likely that the very nature of the challenge, which belongs to a category known to anthropologists as 'extreme ritual,' made people more open handed,” says The New Yorker writer, James Surowiecki. There were 4.4 million tweets sent using the #ALSIceBucketChallenge. This led to $115 million being raised for the cause. So if the challenge didn’t take money from other important causes, and it raised donations for a nonprofit, can you really claim that this wasn’t productive activism?
With the advent and growth of new and existing social media platforms, activism has quickly made its way from streets protests to all-out Twitter campaigns.
But how do movements start in the online space?
Slacktivism is seen as a lazy way of participating in social causes because it’s seen as “low-risk” and “low-cost." But when we analyze some cases of online activism, we see that it’s not always negative and “lazy”. For example, #givingtuesday, in which people donated money to charities to offset the negativity of mass spending on Black Friday. Donations in 2013 were up by 90% because of the raised publicity of the cause on social media.
But how effective is the hashtag and how does it compare to older forms of activism? Is it the slacktivist way of voicing our opinions and advocating for change? Let’s look at some cases.
Learn More
Be active and check out more about slacktivism by reading our sources.
While some research has shown slacktivism to be an effective form of activism for a social cause, other studies show that these practices can have detrimental consequences. Slacktivism can often reduce the willingness of Millennials to take part in offline activism.
Activists cannot rely solely on social media to start on-the-ground activism. Although social media can help spark a cause online, the cause would benefit more from offline communication amongst advocates. Online, Millennials have a loose friend structure that is made of just simply connections. Real life activism requires a strong organizational structure of people rather than just having an unorganized group of people online. A motivated, organized group of offline advocates help their cause more than random factions of people online.
Millennials consider low-threshold online actions, such as sharing a post or joining an advocacy group on social media, as major contributions to the success of the social cause and often stop there because they think they have contributed enough. Since Millennials believe they are contributing greatly online, they are less likely to participate in offline activism such as joining a panel, discussion, or demonstration.
For example, in a study that looked at UK Millennials’ social media consumption patterns and participation in elections and activism, slacktivism did not have an impact on offline political action. Social media usage had strong ties to online activism such as sharing a link to a political article, but it did not have a strong connection with an offline action such as voting.
SO WHAT'S THE VERDICT ON SLACKTIVISM?
The case of the A.L.S. Ice Bucket Challenge highlights the potential that slacktivism has. The general public tends to have a negative attitude towards slacktivist actions, claiming that if people really cared, they would take more serious and less virtual actions. However, the Ice Bucket Challenge not only raised awareness significantly about Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but the nonprofit also saw a huge increase in donations.
A popular criticism of this particular case is that people feel as though they should care about this cause and merely go through the motions of pretending to feel emotionally attached rather than considering where their donations would be more beneficial. Other critics were even concerned that people were just wasting water, while citizens in other areas don’t have access to water at all. And still, others claimed that this was taking donations from other organizations which supported diseases that affect more people than the 6,000 a year that are diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Slacktivism
Combination of the words "activism" and "slacker." Often described as a lazy form of activism, slacktivism is a “low-cost," “low-risk” form of activism that takes place over the Internet in which people feel like they are participating when in fact they are doing very little.
Here are some everyday examples of slacktivism:
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Making a Facebook status or tweeting
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Joining cause-related social network groups
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Signing online petitions
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“Liking” or “sharing” something on Facebook
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Microblogs
Here are some examples of how slacktivism relates to real world causes:
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Kony 2012
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Ice Bucket Challenge
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Pray for Paris Facebook profile picture filter
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Black Lives Matter
THE GOOD
Slacktivism naturally has a negative connotation. It’s perceived as a lazy form of activism because the actions are considered simple and ineffective. Millennials have a completely different approach to activism than both Generation X and the Baby Boomers. Previous generations relied on boycotts, protests and divestment campaigns. Millennials have the ability to participate in activism by simply logging onto the Internet. Although actions that are performed via the Internet are considered futile compared to other forms of activism, they can have a positive impact on social causes.
Previous forms of activism were limited in scope because it was more difficult to reach people to support a cause. Slacktivism allows Millennials to expand their reach across geographic locations in ways that are more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. With the advent of social media, Millennials can log onto Facebook or Twitter and immediately become engaged with a wide range of information, opinions and recruitment. Slacktivist actions might foster more offline participation because the posters may feel an increased sense of empowerment and accomplishment. With this, slacktivists are more likely to help a cause than non-slacktivists. Slacktivism is also considered “arm chair activism," which can act as a gateway drug. Slacktivists’ online actions can expose people to causes and therefor increase engagement. In the very least, armchair activism can help a cause more than armchair passivity.
THE BAD
THE INFAMOUS ICE BUCKET
Slacktivism in action
THE 2 FACES OF SLACKTIVISM
WHERE DO YOU FIT IN?
Social Media Activism: Effective or Slacktivism?
While there are many opposing views on the effectiveness of slacktivism, this article looks at multiple sides to come to a conclusion as to when actions are considered slacktivist and when they’re not.
Activism or “Slacktivism”? Are we a nation of online slackers?
In today’s digital world, we are constantly being urged to sign petitions and retweet posts about social injustices. This interview-style article gives one expert’s opinion on this trend.
Why Slacktivism Is A Key Engagement Strategy For Nonprofits
This article recognizes the positive change in the negative reputation of slacktivism. With slacktivists playing a key role in widespread campaigns, especially for non-profits, slacktivism is becoming essential to the online world.
Keeping Sources Credible
We created this short video to help visualize the two sides of slacktivism, showing how it can be both positive and negative. We compare two people; one who is extremely active offline, giving to the community both personally and financially and one who is only semi-active when they’re forced to be.
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