Blog Profile - "Online Activism"

Online Activism is a cyberactivism and social movement blog, covering issues of social media, slacktivism, clicktivism and web communities. Operating under the tagline “A Network Society Perspective”, the blog appears to be a more objective collection of opinions from online activists across the Internet. The postings however suggest a more critical stance on the issues in question, and are clearly academic and professional in style. The author, Khatarina Otulak, is a Masters student of Digital Communications and Cultures at the University of Sydney, interested in political blogging, citizen journalism, Internet censorship and the digital divide. Judging from her insights and educational background, Otulak knows what she’s talking about. Her posts flow smoothly, with articulated arguments and well-drawn conclusions. Enough detail and substance is included to keep the posts scholarly, but without boring the reader. Ultimately, she makes strong points that directly support my own blog.

The most recent entry, entitled “The Gladwell Controversy”, discusses the power of social media to influence “real” activism. The post reflects upon a New York Times article by Malcolm Gladwell, which makes a distinction between strong ties (direct contacts and associations) and weak ties (distant connections or acquaintances). Gladwell argues that social media facilitates engagement in causes through the quick dissemination of information across many weak ties. While Otulak agrees with this point, she challenges his view of the overall result. “Facebook is an example for social networks’ effectiveness in increasing participation by lessening the level of required motivation.” By attributing successful causes to only high-risk activists, Otulak argues that Gladwell is disregarding the different types of involvement and the evolutionary nature of activism itself. Ultimately, she contends that he has overlooked the real potential of social media to cause change.

Even more relevant to my initial blog is her post, “What’s your bra color - Social Contagion for a good cause?” Otulak touches on many of the same criticisms I voiced about the breast cancer awareness campaign of late, which she similarly agrees could have been more useful. To add to the debate, she also examines why social media is so effective in drawing support for such campaigns. In her opinion, Facebook and Twitter provide “low barriers to entry” to social causes, requiring little active effort from users to become involved. One is just a click away from joining a page or changing their status - a very low personal cost that most are willing to pay.

As a whole, Otulak’s posts create an overall sense of conflict throughout her blog. On one hand, social media is effective in reaching users across online communities and providing them with information and opportunity for involvement. On the other, it requires little motivation or personal sacrifice to become part of a social cause through these networks. By creating this internal argument, Otulak’s blog is successful in keeping readers interested. While her own opinions are firm and supported by evidence, there is still room for an ongoing debate. Additionally, she also provides links to further reading and videos to offer different perspectives on the topic. This is a quality I hope will feed my own work, as I want to invite active feedback from my readers, and point them to more useful sources. Unfortunately, Otulak’s posts do not allow you to comment back, a clear difference between my blog and hers. While her blog appears to be relatively unpopular, I’m hoping that she will continue posting more frequently to give me future points of discussion.

Welcome!

Welcome to Occupy The Internet. Please like our Facebook page if you are against raising student loan rates, support the #Occupy movements, or feel strongly about voters’ rights. Change your status to this for 24 hours to raise awareness of these issues. 9/10 people will do this, will you?

STOP! Before you go any further, and begin to feel as if you’re making a difference in a relevant social cause, consider the truth… You’re not. Instead, you’ve become another victim of a sweeping social media trend known as Slacktivism. For those readers unfamiliar with this term, it combines the words Slacker and Activist, and describes the “feel good” procedure of posting/blogging/messaging about social issues or causes without taking any literal action. I like to think of it as a “social placebo” – a quick fix that leaves you feeling positive about your effort, but with no physical effect.

Let’s look at a recent example… Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. MLK was a man instrumental in fueling the Civil Rights movement across America, who formed his entire philosophy and work around the action of change. He was a doer, whose actions always spoke louder than his inspiring words. In his remembrance, millions reposted quotes and videos from his famous speeches, and probably felt warm and fuzzy inside for bringing attention to this Holiday on their Facebook or Twitter page. But did anyone go out and do something yesterday, to try and fix a problem with their community or government? My guess is most of us just took the day off.

Another example I like to pick on is a campaign that went viral on Facebook the past two Octobers. Suddenly, women everywhere began posting different colors and patterns to their page: “pink”, “black”, “lace”, “leopard”. But why? In case you missed the message, the colorful statuses revealed what type of bra they had on, and were meant to raise awareness for breast cancer. I ask you, what did this actually accomplish? It did not provide any knowledge about breast cancer, or information regarding volunteer opportunities. It also did not succeed in raising any money, nor did it list any charity partnerships where one could donate. In my opinion, it only left a lot of people asking questions and a lot of men teasingly intrigued. The viral statuses then repeated themselves the following year, only this time revealing where women like to keep their purse, as in,” I like it on the kitchen counter.”

By now you may be thinking that I’m quite the negative skeptic. You may also think that I’m a hypocrite, as all I’m doing is writing about this problem instead of actually doing something. The truth is, I’m a Slacktivist too. We probably all are at one point or another. It’s impossible to get involved with every cause that matters, so telling others about it on the Internet may have to suffice from time to time. Also, from what I’ve read, research shows that Slacktivists are twice as likely to become involved with a cause they post about. In my opinion, the real problem stems from the social media communities. Facebook and Twitter have created the phenomenon of trending, which downplays the real-world importance of many issues and turns them into the “it” topic to post about on any given day. Bringing awareness to issues is definitely a positive effect, but by tomorrow many of them will be forgotten. It is this extremely temporal nature of posts and #hashtags that is holding back the motivation to take action. Is anyone talking about Martin Luther King today on Facebook or Twitter? Or breast cancer? I haven’t seen many.

My goal is that by writing this blog, I can discover how social media influences the (in)effectiveness of social causes, and perhaps what potential it has to improve action among students. I will be posting regularly about these issues, and working towards a detailed research paper that will hopefully answer some of these questions. I’ll leave you with a quote that demands we get up and do something, one I’m sure you’ve read before…

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Ghandhi

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.