For every ‘share’ this post gets I will donate $1 to charity*

*That’s an outright lie.

It’s no secret that today’s society loves to find ways to make things easier for themselves. We have blankets with sleeves, dishwashers and can buy almost anything and get it delivered to our homes without even getting out of bed. 

It is then, no surprise that our laziness and love for staying in bed all day has brought about digital activism.

What is digital activism you ask? It’s the use of the interwebs, particularly social media, to lobby for change through a citizen movement. This is can be done in a variety of ways, from online petitions to Facebook pages.  You know that page you liked so that doctor would help the dying child? Yeah, that.

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 There are a few issues I find with digital activism. It’s really easy to show your support, and that’s great. Just by changing your profile photo you can show the world how cultured and conscientious you are. But does that make us lazy?  Are we more than wiling to support something when all we have to do is click ‘like’ on a page, but give up when we’re called to actually leave our bedroom?

The Kony 2012 campaign is a perfect example of this.  Everybody I knew was sharing and liking the video, commenting on how wrong what was happening was. No matter how passionate their expressions were, I don’t know anyone who actually purchased the ‘action pack’ or took park in ‘cover the night’ despite how many Facebook events for it they created and joined.

Only 25 ‘activists’ of the 18,700 who clicked attending to a Sydney CBD Facebook event for ‘cover the night’ showed up, while ‘Kony 2012’ did not trend on Australian Twitter the day it was supposed to go viral. 

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This is a major criticism of digital activism, labelling it as ‘slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism.’

Did this happen because we, as a society are lazy? Do we think that just by simply clicking ‘like’ we are able to create social change?

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Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against digital activism in any way.  Digital media, and social media in particular is a great way to get your message heard. I’ve signed online petitions against Internet censorship and joined Facebook groups in support of a cause. But sometimes it’s hard to tell legitimate pages from pages just fishing for ‘likes’ and popularity. 

I think people can be fooled on the Internet pretty easily.

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The amount of times I've seen this image shared is proof of that.

Digital Activism works, but to a point. There comes a stage where society has to get up and voice their opinion IRL. Seeing 10,000 people show their support for something online doesn’t have the same effect as seeing 10,000 people standing together in the streets.

SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) is an organisation that has been making successful use of digital activism. The SLAM Facebook page is currently only has around 12,000 likes, they use it to create awareness for the SLAM day rally’s, events and petitions that surround the issues Australia is having with live music. The SLAM events and rallies have always had a great response.  In 2010 the SLAM rally saw between ten and twenty thousand people fill the streets of Melbourne. Each rally since then has amounted in similar results. SLAM can only be successful in its endeavors if people choose to get up and physically voice their opinion. Digital activism works, but at this point in time, it only works in conjunction with real life activism. 

So are you a digital activist? Are you constantly liking and sharing posts to show your support of a cause? And if so, do you actually follow up? 

Will digital activism become the only activism in the future? 

Its interesting,

-Carla.