Slacktivism

Medium wants me to change the title of this piece to “Activism”.

Funny.

If we acknowledge slacktivism, which in this case is the preponderance of our generation to use social media as a form of protest in the hope to create change, as a viable tool, equal in strength and persuasion to real activism, we discredit the previous efforts of past protesters, many of whom shed blood and sweat and tears to see the betterment they wished.

I wonder if the resources we currently have would made the same impact during the Civil Rights Movement or any other societal movement. Does a word-restricted tweet carry the same weight as a group of motivated individuals taking to the streets? The images from the aforementioned movements, especially the Civil Rights movement, show of agony and pain. Their faces tell stories of loss, stories of lost voices, lost in the ether or another man’s privilege. Through it all they persisted, in inclement weather and brute violence. I can’t a imagine a tweet being as impactful as that.

If we give the same weight to our social media activism and try to lend it the same power, then we miss the point of organized protest. Weekends like this past one show of our country’s tenacity in the face of increasing levels of laziness and self-righteousness. In past, we can blame social media. In part, we can blame the ease at which connections are forged on these platforms. But in no part can we equate marching for science with a hashtag circulating around the web.

Perhaps the tweet will rally the uninformed; the vehicle of information can reach places far and wide. That aspect of slacktivism is crucial, but it doesn’t compare to marching, or using your actual voice (and not your virtual one). Pictures form the resistance will be of the people cloaked in anger, yet determined to see progress until the very end. They will not be of my lowly tweet. In time, that tweet will become lost, another sheet of paper in the filing cabinet of the internet, just like the many before it and the many to come after.

If we equate activism to our penchant and love of hashtags and social media, we will always miss the mark. And oppression, in the form of quieting scientific inquiry to silencing voices of minority groups, will persist.