BLAIR WOYNARSKI
Opinions Writer

Wikipedia defines “slacktivism” as “a pejorative term that describes ”˜feel-good’ measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist.”

Sound familiar?

Slacktivism is on the rise, and its pace has been quickened thanks to widespread usage of the Internet. My first real exposure to this phenomenon came about a few years ago. There was a story coming out of Iran — one we’ve all heard before — where a young woman was being sentenced to death because of something that might have been met with a disapproving click of the tongue in any other part of the world.

It was a terrible story, but I understood that I, personally, could not do anything about it. Some folks, however, got the idea to start an online petition for her release. It’s a noble sentiment, though I might more appropriately call it cute. I vocalized my feeling — that the opinions of a bunch of American teenagers on the Internet is going to mean precisely fuck-all to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They retorted with the classic, “At least we’re doing something.” And I began to wonder — were they?

The practice has increased by leaps and bounds with Facebook. You have all seen it. “If one million people join this group, we can save the Amazon rainforest,” or “Susan likes Not Clubbing Baby Seals.” Saving the world has never been easier.

I do not want to suggest that Internet protest cannot be effective. It certainly has been in the past, and has been able to give information to people who would not normally have it. I also do not want to discourage people from engaging in any cause whatsoever. Something as small as planting one tree can make a difference, and if we all start doing small things, we can definitely create change.

The problem is when even the small things get too big for us, and we retreat into the belief that anything we type will shake the fabric of society. That leads to stupid fads like women everywhere posting the colours of their bras in their Facebook statuses, and then giggling reticently when someone asks what that means. Eventually, we learn it’s supposed to raise awareness for breast cancer. But everyone is already aware of breast cancer; raising awareness isn’t doing anything. Yet that is the excuse people use to feel better about themselves from posting a Facebook status.

It is even worse when slacktivism becomes self-righteous. There is the old “post this message in your status if you believe racism is wrong” guilt trip. What that is telling me is that apparently all of my friends who willingly added me to their Facebook lists are going to think I’m a savage, howling racist unless I post that status update on my profile. To invoke a cliché, it’s preaching to a choir. If you want to make a stand for social justice, don’t do it from the safety of your bedroom exclusively to people who already know you and your socio-political position.

A few months ago there was a day when everyone was supposed to wear purple to show support for homosexuals feeling marginalized in society. This is a step in the right direction, because it gets people out of the comfort of their online profiles. I just hope they didn’t assume anyone not wearing purple was doing so out of spite. So when the event is enforced on such a casual level, I wonder what it really accomplishes. It would have made more of a statement to have a large number of people all wearing purple all gathered together at one time. But perhaps that is too hard for us.

So why slacktivism?  Well, it seems that we, as humans, have a deep-seated desire to do good, but practically, most of us are lazy sons of bitches. The sad fact is that there are a lot of worthy causes out there, but not one of us has the resources, either financially or emotionally, to deal with all of them. It makes us feel better to think that posting something on Facebook is making the world better.

Is doing something so little better than doing nothing?  I have the considered and controversial opinion that it isn’t. If someone is a slacktivist for  a hundred different causes, they lack the desire to be an activist in one. We need to accept that sometimes we are powerless, and we can’t be all things to all causes. The best thing you can do is pick one thing you really believe in, and then do something about it.

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image: Flickr