The Social Media Bandwagon

I recently read an interesting article about how different technologies have affected the dynamics of mobs, in particular social media platforms. I will admit that editor of Wired Magazine and author Bill Wasik makes a strong case for the effectiveness of Facebook, Twitter and BBM in organizing mob action, but whether or not this is a positive effect for digital activism is a different story. After reading his article #Riot, I consider Social Media tools to be more of a double-edged sword. Yes, they can be used to prompt activism, but sometimes for the wrong reasons. Even worse, social media has the power to influence mass amounts of people through popularity alone, without providing enough information on the issues at play.

Wasik uses several case studies to demonstrate how social media and instant messaging applications have transformed the way mobs gather, how they think, and how they act. In particular, “flash mobs” of instantaneous and spontaneous nature are made possible by these new ways of communication. To explain this, Wasik first discusses the recent riots in Enfield, England. Several stores were looted by a mob of a few hundred, in retaliation to a video and photos of police brutality. What was unique about this mob was its ability to adapt on the fly. When law enforcement officials seemingly contained the rioters, they were able to quickly find new exits. After dispersing at one point, they were able to reorganize again with the same force in a new area of town hours later. Wasik attributes this adaptability to the quick and instant spread of information between the mob (both in text and visual media form) made possible in this case by Blackberry Messenger (BBM).

My concern here is how information can be taken out of context when received through social media. It can also be distorted to promote an opinion or movement that is easy to for others to get behind. Whatever action law enforcement was taking in this photo could have been completely warranted. Someone was quick to cry “brutality”, and immediately sent it to ten of their friends with the subject line “Let’s Kick Some Arse and Loot The Grocery”. My guess is they all jumped on board the mob train without giving it a second thought, and forwarded the message on to ten more of their friends. This is known as the bandwagon effect; willingness to join the group is proportional to the numbers who have already done so.

This reminds me of the recent SOPA and PIPA protests circulating around Facebook. Everyone was asking (demanding) their friends to sign the petition against the bills, which many agreeably did. But how many of these people actually took the time to read the petition, or to read the bills for that matter? How many actually knew what they were signing? Not enough. But if you’re three best friends signed it, hey, why not right?

My point is that social media has qualities that promote a “follower’s” mindset. It’s fast, it’s easy, and everyone’s using it. It’s almost like a drug. Remember that day in high school when your buddy first peer-pressured you into smoking weed? That was most likely harmless – this is not:

The immediate nature of texts, tweets and posts often prevent us from ever digging deeper into the issues behind them, and making our own informed opinions. We follow what’s trending. We “like” what’s popular. As with the English mobs, it can be useful to step back, and not take immediate action when someone pings you with a “Join Now” text. Do yourself a favor, and think before you act the next time you click.

Soulmates?

I recently joined the social bookmarking resource Diigo yesterday to connect with other people out there talking and reading about Slacktivism. After some diligent searching, I realized it’s hard to find someone who has a lot to say about it on a regular basis. Eventually though, I came across Dan McQuillan. Other than his name, you won’t find any of the other usual personal information about him – no profile picture, no occupation, no short bio. Dan’s Diigo does tell me one thing though: he reads… A LOT. A member since April of last year, Dan has already amassed over 18,500 public bookmarks. If I do my math right, that’s about… well, more than I want to read in a day. Just tonight as I’m writing this, he has tagged more than ten separate articles, all within an hour of each other.

I was also drawn to McQuillan because of his bookmarking topics, many of which are closely related to Slacktivism. While he seems to be more of the active type than the slacktive type, his tags did point me towards some relevant articles that I will pick on later. “Social”, “Media”, “Activism”, and “Research” are his most common tags, in addition to “Twitter” leading the pack with 819 uses. Recently, he has been reading and tagging articles on the topic of Internet censorship, and the new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Following the recent concern of the SOPA and PIPA acts, ACTA seems to pose an even greater threat to Internet freedom, as it would allow websites to more easily track and report user activity. Right now, it is working its way through the EU Parliament, where a vote of “NO” will effectively dismantle the agreement. McQuillan also bookmarked several YouTube videos on this subject, highlighting another cool capability of Diigo that I was unaware of.

One particularly applicable gem I found after digging through a few more pages of McQuillan’s readings is The Meta-Activism Project. This “non-traditional digital activism think tank” aims to provide essential readings, thought-provoking blogs, and quantitative data on digital activism to its readers. Unfortunately, much of their work supports the exact opposite of my opinion on the relationship between social media and involvement. In Dan’s tagged article, “The Proof is in the Pendulum: a History of Digital Activism and Repression”, author Mary Joyce uses a data set to graphically show how the emergence of social media has exponentially increased digital activism over the past six years. Ok, fine… the numbers don’t lie. The world is becoming more involved digitally, as campaigns are made more accessible through these tools. But this does not equate to literal, physical, successful activism, as evidenced by this graphic from the very same website:

Another McQuillan-tagged article that shared my same contempt of digital activism malpractice is Micah White’s, “A Vision of Post-Clicktivist Activism” found on Adbusters. I breathed a long sigh of relief upon reading this post… Finally, someone else who agrees with me!:

“If #OCCUPYWALLSTREET fails, it will be because we've blindly adopted "best practices" put forth by wealthy Californian techies turned reformist campaigners. Their methods now dominate the way many organizers believe activism should be done, privileging a data-obsessed, metrics-oriented, technocratic approach which is closer to advertising than resistance.”

Now, if I could only get Dan McQuillan’s stance on all of this, I might be able to call him my “Social Bookmarking Soulmate”. Alas, he does not add comments along with his tags, so I will never know. Either way, his diligent tagging techniques of related topics and interest in all things related to social media and digital activism make Dan McQuillan a valuable resource to any reader of mine.

Trifecta

THE VOICE OF JAY DOLAN

If you’re looking for a blog that will inspire you to use social media effectively, and send you rushing to tweet or post these newfound insights, turn back now . You’ll regret about eighty-percent of the “absolute worst ideas and writing” that you’ve posted to Twitter and Facebook after reading Jay Dolan’s The Anti-Social Media. Seriously, this guy makes you feel bad. Arrogantly coined “the best social media satire on the internet. Ever.”, Dolan’s writing is nothing short of blunt. You may be able to infer this from the blood-soaked stick figure crying, “Muah ha ha ha ha!” that greets you on the homepage, or from the anarchist “A” symbol found in the blog title. If not, it won’t take long to pick up on this author’s voice after reading a few of his posts.

Dolan is a blogger out for vengeance. He’s irritated by the ways in which users have degraded social media into mindless self-promotion tools and ineffective campaign platforms. In a word, he is downright angry. In his recent post, "Trending Topics on Twitter", Dolan makes the sarcastic comparison between hashtags and self-imposed brain surgery – “Trending Topics have all the benefits of giving yourself a lobotomy.” This line is bolded to emphasize Dolan’s cynicism and firm opinion, a technique used in all of his posts. Further along, he asks his readers:

“Do you honestly believe that the people who share trending topics will grasp your weird promoted trend and be able to help you accomplish your business goals?” 

Rhetorical questions like this also recur throughout the blog, and work to dispel any doubts the readers may have with Dolan's point of view, as if saying, “what are you stupid?... of course not!” Thankfully, Dolan injects some comic relief amidst his rants, usually in the form of a satirical doodle beside his words that remind me of Rage Guy. To compliment this, his posts are all short and sweet – he tells you what he doesn’t like and why.

An earlier post titled "SOPA and PIPA Blackouts" further defines Dolan’s cynical yet comedic voice found throughout his blog. He uses concise paragraphs and sentences here to affirm his opinions while still being funny, beginning the post with…

“There are a lot of websites going dark today to protest SOPA an PIPA.

Those websites are stupid.”

Surprisingly, Dolan does not have a foul mouth (or pen in the case). While his posts are devoid of profanity, he does use informal language, such as calling tweets “lame” and form letters “crappy”. This word choice makes his rants more relatable to readers who share the same basic emotions. Dolan also uses topical references to make connections with his audience, citing LOL Cats as a far worse tragedy than website blackouts, but both ones "we can all suffer through.” He again uses bold to emphasize his irritancy with the general reaction to the blackouts, seemingly screaming at every reader, “Turning off your website, no matter how many hits you get daily, is just a very minor inconvenience.” This is angry Dolan. He then tones it down with this reference to Facebook posts directed at elected officials:



This is funny, satirical Dolan.

Ultimately, the two sides to Dolan’s voice work well together. Readers are able to share in his frustration and anger caused by Social Media misuse - everyone loves a good rant. They are also able to laugh – sometimes at themselves – at how ridiculous these situations are. To me, Dolan’s voice creates a hot/cold effect. His posts get super heated when he is enraged about something, and then cool back down when he makes a joke about it. Overall, I am aiming to write in a somewhat similar voice (using anger/frustration along with satire) as it makes for an engaging and enjoyable read.




BLOG PROFILE:  ONLINE ACTIVISM

Slacktivism is a serious issue of debate across the Internet, but thankfully one that can be hilarious at times.  I've mainly been scouring the blogosphere for pages like mine that aren't professional or scholarly in tone, so I figured it would be valuable to profile one that is. Online Activism is a relatively obscure cyberactivism and social movement blog, covering issues of social media, slacktivism, clicktivism and web communities. Operating under the tagline “A Network Society Perspective”, I was excited to share in the author’s contempt of Slacktivism through social media use. The postings however suggest a more critical stance on the issues in question, and are clearly more objective in nature. 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. Aussies know what they’re talking about on this subject, as I was surprised to learn that they spend more time on Facebook than Americans.

Her most recent entry, entitled “The Gladwell Controversy”, discusses the power of social media to influence “real” activism. It reflects upon a New York Times article by Malcolm Gladwell, making 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.”

Ultimately, she contends that he has overlooked the real potential of social media to cause change, beginning a lengthy and analytical debate. I’m with Gladwell on this one… more clicking = less doing.

A more relevant topic to my first blog is her post, “What’s your bra color - Social Contagion for a good cause?” Otulak touches on many of the same objections I voiced about the breast cancer awareness campaign of late, which she similarly agrees could have been more useful. She goes beyond personal opinions however, and discusses why social media is so effective in drawing support for such campaigns, reinforcing the academic character of her blog. She contends that 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 paints both a critical and holistic view of Slacktivism and social media use in Online Activism.  This won’t help my writing as much since I’m quite opinionated on the subject, but even so she provides good topics for discussion in her monthly blogs. Strangely, she does not allow readers to comment on these debate-driven posts, a key difference between my blog and hers. I think its fair to say that you should check out Otulak’s blog if you haven’t made up your mind yet about Slacktivism.  If you have, and think it’s ridiculous, stay here and keep reading. If you think its useful, go make a Facebook status about it.




HELLO WORLD!

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 Activism, and describes the feel-good procedure of posting 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 life’s work around the action of change. He was a doer, whose actions always spoke louder than his inspiring words. In his remembrance, millions re-posted 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 bring awareness to a social issue affecting their own community? My guess is most of us pulled a Bueller and took the day off.

You may be more familiar with a slacktivist campaign that went viral on Facebook the past two Octobers. Suddenly, women everywhere began posting different colors and patterns to their page… 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 campaign actually accomplish? It did not provide any knowledge about the disease, or information regarding volunteer opportunities. It also did not succeed in raising any money, nor did it list any charities where one could donate. While it did get me thinking about breasts, it did not persuade me to leave my computer and rush out the door to cure cancer. In my opinion, it only left a lot of people asking questions and a lot of men teasingly intrigued.

By now you’re probably thinking that I’m quite the Negative Nancy. You may also think that I’m a hypocrite, as I’m only writing about this problem instead of actually doing something to change it. The truth is, I was once guilty of Slacktivism too, but at least now I’m beginning to understand how and why it is so prevalent. 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 causing issues requiring real action to pass us by. Is anyone talking about Martin Luther King today on Facebook or Twitter? Or breast cancer? I haven’t seen many.

Hopefully by writing this blog, I will find out more about the connection between Slacktivism and social media tools, and possibly how to remedy the false sense of contribution that they have created together. At the very least, maybe I can influence a few readers to stop changing their profile pictures to Spongebob, thinking they’re preventing child abuse... #SMH.

The Voice of Jay Dolan

If you’re looking for a blog that will inspire you to use social media effectively, and send you rushing to tweet or post these newfound insights, turn back now . You’ll regret about eighty-percent of the “absolute worst ideas and writing” that you’ve posted to Twitter and Facebook after reading Jay Dolan’s The Anti-Social Media. Seriously, this guy makes you feel bad. Arrogantly coined “the best social media satire on the internet. Ever.”, Dolan’s writing is nothing short of blunt. You may be able to infer this from the blood-soaked stick figure crying, “Muah ha ha ha ha!” that greets you on the homepage, or from the anarchist “A” symbol found in the blog title. If not, it won’t take long to pick up on this author’s voice after reading a few of his posts.

Dolan is a blogger out for vengeance. He’s irritated by the ways in which users have degraded social media into mindless self-promotion tools and ineffective campaign platforms. In a word, he is downright angry. In his recent post, "Trending Topics on Twitter", Dolan makes the sarcastic analogy between hashtags and self-performed brain surgery – “Trending Topics have all the benefits of giving yourself a lobotomy.” This line is bolded to emphasize Dolan’s cynicism, a technique used in all of his posts. Further along, he asks his readers if they, “honestly believe that the people who share trending topics will grasp your weird promoted trend and be able to help you accomplish your business goals?” Rhetorical questions like this also recur throughout the blog, and work as reality checks to skeptic readers, as if saying, “what are you stupid?... of course not!” Thankfully, Dolan injects some comic relief amidst his rants, usually in the form of a satirical doodle beside his words that remind me of Rage Guy. To compliment this, his posts are all short and sweet – he tells you what he doesn’t like and why.

An earlier post titled "SOPA and PIPA Blackouts" further defines Dolan’s cynical yet comedic voice found throughout his blog. He uses concise paragraphs and sentences here to affirm his opinions while still being funny, beginning the post with…

“There are a lot of websites going dark today to protest SOPA an PIPA.

Those websites are stupid.”

Surprisingly, Dolan does not have a foul mouth (or pen in the case). While his posts are devoid of profanity, he does use informal language, calling tweets “lame” and form letters “crappy”. This word choice makes his rants more relatable to readers who share the same basic emotion. Dolan also uses topical references to make connections with his audience, comparing LOL Cats with website blackouts, both as “tragedies we can all suffer through.” He again uses bold to emphasize his irritancy with the general reaction to the blackouts, seemingly screaming at every reader, “Turning off your website, no matter how many hits you get daily, is just a very minor inconvenience.” This is angry Dolan. He then tones it down with this reference to Facebook posts directed at elected officials:





This is funny, satirical Dolan.

Ultimately, the two sides to Dolan’s voice work well together. Readers are able to share in his frustration and anger caused by Social Media misuse - everyone loves a good rant. They are also able to laugh – sometimes at themselves – at how ridiculous these situations are. To me, Dolan’s voice creates a hot/cold effect. His posts get super heated when he is enraged about something, and then cool back down when he makes a joke about it. Overall, it makes for an engaging and enjoyable read.