Slactivism: It’s my new favorite word. It’s activism, but with a little slack attached, so I don’t have to commit to anything but can still feel good about caring for something.
One can be a slactivist in many ways. There are those who wear wristbands and adorn their cars with bumper stickers. But for me, slactivism takes its form on Facebook, where I am a member of 104 groups and a supporter of three ‘Causes.’ Support our troops and end world hunger with a simple click? Sounds good to me.
But there’s something wrong with this overly simple method of activism, and that’s that I’m not actually doing anything. Lately it’s been easy for me to say that I care about Haiti – and I claim I do – but do I really? Why do I join a group that advocates relief for Haiti if I myself am not doing anything to relieve their dour situation? Professions of concern online are, at the very least, a good way of expressing care. But maybe that’s all they are: professions. And professions serve as nothing if they can’t get some activism out of that slactivism.
It’s hard for me to donate money and time to every cause I’d like to care about. Still, I don’t buy that joining a Facebook group will make something brighter. It’s not like I did my part by clicking ‘join’ in response to a Facebook group invitation. The crises for which these groups raise awareness cannot be fixed with a single click, and accepting an invitation to join doesn’t make anyone any better of a person, their initial attempt to care notwithstanding.
If you were to check Facebook, you would see that I, Anne Whiting, belong to of a number of slactivist groups, such as ‘FreeRice: Help End World Hunger;’ ‘Project Red Shirt,’ which calls members to wear red shirts on Fridays to support the troops; ‘Boston University Invisible Children,’ an organization that helps the war children of Uganda; ‘Let Justice BE,’ which raises awareness of poverty; the ‘American Cancer Society Benefit’ and groups called ‘For every 50 people that join, I will donate 1 euro to UNICEF,’ ‘Help the suffering Burmese people, right now!’ and ‘Team Laura,’ which apparently seeks to find a cure for Rett Symdrome.
Now, I have never played the FreeRice game to earn points that somehow provide rice for the hungry. I own one red shirt, and do not wear it on Fridays. I’ve never been to an Invisible Children meeting and I spend more money on Starbucks each week than I give to charitable organizations that fight poverty. I have not recently donated any money to cancer research foundations, I did nothing to help the Burmese people last year and I don’t even know what Rett Syndrome is.
For every hour I spend doing homework, I spend another socializing over the Internet. Daily, I walk right past the Amnesty International and M’eacute;decins Sans Fronti’egrave;res spokespeople while on my way to class. My Causes application is situated nicely between Hoops and YoYo eCards and a Vampire game.
Facebook recently alerted me that my Causes account is incomplete and that I need to enter my email address to receive important updates and information. Funny that my first reaction was ‘definitely not.’ I also have an invitation to become a ‘fan’ of Red Cross Medical Teams International. And sure I’m a fan of them, but so what? I’m a fan of everything.
Recently, I’ve used the ‘Greenbook’ application, which somehow allows me to join a group to plant trees. Great! Now let me go print my huge science packet while I drink coffee out of a large disposable paper cup. The idea of raising awareness and funds over the Internet via a clever and inspiring Facebook application is smart but it’s not entirely effective. It’s eco-friendly, in that Causes doesn’t send any paper flyers, but to those nonprofit organizations seeking financial support, it seems that Causes isn’t so green after all.
And it’s not like I can push the ‘Leave Cause’ button and feel okay about myself. So I’m stuck in this cycle of false activism and nonexistent generosity. As a ‘supporter,’ I may occasionally invite my friends to join a cause, but that’s about all the time I have for problems that are thousands of miles away when there are tests to study for and papers to write.
It doesn’t make much sense to me to pretend to care about something and then turn around and complain about my hair, my diet and the boy who won’t call me back. But that’s what I do every day. Clearly, my world is more important than the wider one. And even after writing this, I bet I won’t run out to sign up for Haiti relief trips.
But I’ll cut us slactivists a little slack. While the world has no need for more slackers, trying to care is a good first step.
Anne Whiting is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences and a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at [email protected].