Did you join those campaigns? Why did you join? Why do you think it's viral?
Slacktivism is taking part in social action online with minimal personal efforts and little immediate effect, for instance, signing online petitions, displaying a badge or widget on the profile picture, and joining a cause or group of the movement. I realised that social movements or advocacy became viral partly thanks to slacktivists who liked, shared or tweeted based on solidarity without necessarily understanding the cause.
Image courtesy of Spirit of Rebellion
Though slacktivists are deemed as lazy and ineffective, their small contribution matters because:
Slacktivists are great enablers of rising social issues online
Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, said that slacktivists' power lies in their numbers. Their small action can influence their networks to join the movement. When they share stories, posts, or links with their social media followers who have the same interests and concerns, their followers may participate in the campaigns too. Their followers will then share it with their social media networks, and eventually, more and more people become aware and participate in the movements. Mainstream media may also pick up the stories, which result in massive awareness and social or political change. For instance, Greta Thunberg uses social media to advocate for environmental rights, which have attracted media and government attention.
Individual slacktivists may be weak connectors, but they enable social activists or organisations to reach a massive audience because of their ability to directly link social media engagement with responsiveness and to mobilise and publicise support in the streets. Massive support and awareness of the social movements I mentioned above were possible through social media. In other words, slacktivists can raise awareness of social issues on social media and even turn online actions into offline mobilisation.
Image courtesy of CharityChap.com in Medium Magazine
Once participate, they may join future efforts
Social activists or organisations need to embrace these online supporters because the more they are included in movements, the more likely they join future efforts. People are more willing to engage in social action that is easy and less costly. Supporting advocacies on social media is easy and may cost zero. I can quickly sign online petitions through change.org by submitting some personal data at no money cost. Supporting a cause in just one-click action allows people to repeat their actions.
This video further explains the power of social media and slacktivism.
Lastly, I would like to argue that NGOs or social activists need to embrace slacktivists for their actions and contributions. Do you have the same opinion? Or do you have a case in mind that contrast with what I share in this post? Please share it with me in the comment section.
Hi pheseline, there are debates on whether slacktivism could promote real change on social issues. But I agree with your idea that slacktivists have their value in its ability to raise greater public awareness on a social issue. My example is that in feb 2022 Bilibili faced a pr crisis , deemed to be responsible for its employee's death because of the company's working-overtime culture. It generated massive discussion online on Weibo. If no slacktivists share or comment on the topic, it won't give raise to such a crisis for Bilibili, and bilibili won't make further action such as reduce workload of employee by recruiting 1000 people, to solve the public's blame. However if what slacktivists do is only sharin…
Thanks, Pheselline, for this analysis,
I think slacktivism has the ability to promote spreading messages and encourage public debate on social issues. I appreciate slacktivism that it empowers the underprivileged in society. Relying on the small actions of individuals like signing online petitions or liking and sharing on social media can make big changes. A pretty famous example of petition sharing making a difference in Australia: In 2019, a single Vietnamese mother and her son were denied a visa after over ten years of living in Australia due to hepatitis B and facing deportation. Her son wrote a letter to the Immigration Minister about his wish to stay in Australia because he was raised in Australia and would love to…
Hi Pheselline,
While the idea behind slacktivism is familiar to me, I was no aware that the concept actually has a word associated with it, so I would like to thank you for helping me add that to my dictionary.
And on that note, I certainly agree that websites like change.org has helped various NGO and other activists obtain a large number of singatures for little to no effort. However, I would like to argue against the actual effectiveness and quality of that collective voice. I felt like it is often very easy for people and brands to slap on a hastag or lable on their profile in their support of a certain cause, however just like how Reddit and…