Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
The roots of activism stem from thousands of years of protest as a result of matters such as inequality or revolution. Oppression isn’t a new concept and is something people have been fighting against — violently and non-violently — ever since human beings found different ways to congregate. One only needs to look to history to see the many movements that have dramatically shifted the geopolitical landscape.
The National Women’s History Museum cites various historical examples, such as the the Boston Tea Party, the Storming of the Bastille, Nat Turner’s Rebellion, Gandhi’s Salt March, the Stonewall Riots, Vietnam war protests, Tiananmen Square, and the anti-Apartheid movement. These all represent the universal desire for autonomy and the need to have a voice.
Entire nations, such as the United States, were founded on the backs of very important protests which lead to the rebellion of a mass population of people. The founding of the United States started with the Revolutionary War, as Michael Sliwinsky of Law Street describes: “Multiple protests in a number of states set off the Revolutionary War and led to an American nation. Protests against the powers that be did not stop there, in fact, they continued on almost immediately starting with Shay’s Rebellion. In this case, farmers in Massachusetts organized and fought against the government over taxes and penalties for debt. Although the rebellion was quickly crushed, the threat it personified hastened the end of the Articles of Confederation and the creation of the Constitution.”
This could be viewed as a pivotal point in American history as it paved the way for many more societal movements to take place. Concerns then shifted to the issue of slavery and worker’s rights, with Nat Turner launching the slave rebellion in 1831.
The ways in which people come together, voice their opinions, and protest have changed and evolved over the years. With the introduction of technology, this has allowed for a new avenue to disseminate widespread movements. Viral marketing campaigns to gain support has proved to be a very effective alternative to physically collecting in the streets to voice concerns.
Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have become the new grounds where important discourse concerning political and civic affairs take place. Whether it is a viral hashtag, or a 30 second video that garners worldwide attention, it is safe to say that many social media users of today have participated in some form of internet activism, such as by “liking,” commenting, or sharing related posts. This then poses the question: could this new form of activism ever be as effective as storming the streets of your city?
Many widespread movements that have caught the attention of the public eye started as a viral hashtag or post. Black Lives Matter, created by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometti, can fall under that category; this movement started out only as a hashtag on Twitter following the police related deaths of Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castille. The issue of police brutality was called into question, and people demanded change for the unjust deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. George Zimmerman, who had shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012, was acquitted of his second-degree murder charge, which led to even further outrage.
While some may say justice was not served in the aforementioned scenario, for the first time the horrors of police brutality gained attention in a way that the public has never seen before, forever changing the public’s perspective on the police force. It raised the notion of whether or not inherent biases play a role in the ways white cops view black men and women, and these are issues that the public is still grappling with today.
The rise of this hashtag has not erased or completely eradicated police brutality, but it has given a voice to those affected by this particular brand of violence, and has highlighted potential corruption in a very central institution. This issue continues to be on the forefront of everyone’s mind and becomes more of a human rights movement rather than a civil rights movement. Less concerned with changing the laws that are already in place, the more central goal of Black Lives Matter seems to be the restructuring of society to where black people are no longer the brunt of systematic violence. According to a Pew Research analysis, the Black Lives Matter hashtag has been used over 30 million times. It’s clear that this movement is only going to continue to grow as time goes on.
Black Lives Matter is an instance of successful social media activism, but it doesn’t always have such a great outcome. Some argue that using the Internet as a mode to push a major movement may not actually result in any real change at all. Often at times viral campaigns come and go and are forgotten about soon after, even with a mass amount of likes or shares on their posts. The term “slacktivism” was coined to describe what can happen in these instances.
The United Nations has defined slacktivism as: “When people support a cause by performing simple measures but are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change. Slacktivism typically means taking to social media and encompasses things like retweeting words of hope after a national disaster or liking a charity’s Facebook page”. This may sound familiar since for many people, that is the extent of their activism — likes on a popular picture, or touting a trending hashtag.
Essentially, this allows people to put in the least amount of effort but still feel good about the fact that they may have done something to affect change; in actuality, nothing concrete has really been achieved by doing so. That “feel good” moment is what drives the majority of slacktivism as it is an incredibly passive act that almost anyone can participate in. As stated by the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN), “Online activism can become a hypocritical way of getting peace of mind when we know that we are not doing anything substantial to solve the problems we may be indirectly contributing to.”
An example where slacktivism has failed a very important cause would be with the #BringBackOurGirls movement. Three hundred girls were kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group. While largely unreported for several weeks, this situation caused an uproar on social media with everyone from Michelle Obama to your next-door neighbour touting the hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls.
This fiery energy fizzled out after a couple of months and now, five years later, many of the girls are still missing, where they may be either sold into slavery or married off to the men that kidnapped them. The online movement did little to affect concrete change and really only served the ones online who thought they had done their part by sharing a post with that hashtag.
As Scott Gilmore from Macleans describes: “#BringBackOurGirls not only didn’t do anything to actually help the hostages; the campaign made it less likely that we would donate to organizations that were doing real work. Slacktivism isn’t just useless; it makes things worse.”
If one were to view all online campaigns through this lens, it would force one to really think about the kinds of support one shows and to consider whether that support is truly authentic.
Daniela Ruso, a fourth-year screenwriting student, shares her take on the matter: “It is important to remember that a movement must go beyond this primary step of awareness. Making donations is a great way to not only bring awareness to the cause in question, but fund it as well. Above all, the most important thing is to believe in the cause and make those changes in your own life. It always starts with one action.”
Social media has brought about new ways to navigate the political sphere, but with it comes several challenges. Some may question the authenticity of a social media movement, and whether or not the support as a result can bring about real change. It has been shown that it can happen, with very evident successes.
However, there are also movements that don’t result in the same kind of change and fade away from the collective consciousness soon after making its appearance.
