Matthew song #5

Slacktivism vs activism

Slacktivism:
This is something when you want to spread an awareness of a cause but you don't put in as much personal effort. For example, buying merchandise online would be an example of slacktivism. Not going out to protests, but helping from home. Slacktivism is a great way to spread awareness and make it popular online and across social media. For example for #Kony2012, the online support helped everyone be aware of the cause even if it was just using the hashtag. Social media is what allows slacktivism to have an effect on the campaign to some extent, but, if everyone was a slacktivist, there would be no effect on the campaign. The online campaign, #thedress, was used to increase the awareness of abuse towards woman. This campaign was almost all done online making it a slacktivist campaign because there was no actual rallies or protests that took place.

Activism:
Activism is when you actually take part in the protests or rallies that are taking place. The campaign #occupywallstreet was a campaign that was used to lessen the influence of money in the members of congress. This is an example of activism because thousands went out to participate in the rallies and protest at Zuccotti park in NY. They stayed there for many nights in tents and protested on wall street. There were also many protests that happened world wide for the same purpose that spread from the #occupywallstreet.

Socials Media
Social media is the platform for all campaigns to spread their message to people. They post pictures and make it popular on social media. A good example of this would be #occupywallstreet because the cause was posted on social media and made popular across the globe. Many other countries such as Kenya participated in this protest as a result from the protest being spread across social media.

#Activism and #Slacktivism

Slacktivism: A method to spread awareness of a political or social or environmental concern campaign through social media platform with limited effort
An example of slacktivism is retweeting the post and donate some money to the campaign. A way to support a campaign without effecting your everyday routine, making you feel proud of yourself for doing something small and nice.
An example of slacktivism is #thedress
The campaign #thedress started as 2 posts on tweeter on March 6, 2015 by salvation army- around the time when the black and blue, white and gold dress was the the star of the social media. One of the post was a woman with bruises wearing the white and gold dress with saying " why is it so hard to see black and gold?" in addition to a fact of "one out of six women are victims of abuse."

The goal was to show the awareness of domestic violence and abuse against women and spread the importance of protecting and recognizing women who are being abused.
This is an example of slacktivism because the readers don't have to do any physical work or actions to contribute to the campaign other than re-tweeting or sharing it.

Activism: a strategy to run a campaign with more actions and  risks to contribute to the campaign.
Activism usually require the people to do some sort of action to achieve a common goal.
Example: #alsicebucketchallenge
The #alsicebucketchallenge involved lots of  people.
People had to film themselves being bumped by a bucket of ice water.
Why? To show the awareness of ALS and how serious the disease is and it patients with ALS need help from other people.
It involved more than just sharing the post and donate money to their campaign.
The donated money are being used on further research on ALS to help with curing the disease.

#Activists? or #Slacktivists?

What is activism and slacktivism?

Activism is doing something in support of an issue or causes that takes risk to do it. On the other hand, slacktivism is doing something in support of an issue or causes that requires minimal personal effort. The difference is how people or you are engaged in the campaign. There are many online campaign that has been done in online. Let's look at two of them, and think of whether it is activism or slacktivism.

How can social media spread awareness, address issues, and encourage action and engagement?

Social media spread awareness by sharing one's post, and more shared posts leads to spread the campaign more. Also social media address social issues that could not be known by people which could be unfair. For example, a boy name Ahmed who is Muslim could be safe because of the campaign called  #IStandWithAhmed. Ahmed was a 14-year-old boy who brought homemade clock to school, and got arrested since his teacher thought the clock was a bomb. Even though Ahmed kept trying to say that it was not a bomb, he got arrested. People who knew got upset and tried to release Ahmed and to spread awareness to fix the problem with islamophobic double standard. They made a hashtag, and share the posts. The case was spread quickly in a week, and became very famous so that even Barack Obama participated the campaign. A result was great. Ahmed was released, and he could get help from people who wanted to sponsor the ability of engineering.

How does slacktivism work?

Slacktivism works better when more people participate it in. It causes people to do minimal effort to resolve problems. For instance, Ice Bucket Challenge is the most successive online campaign in a way of slacktivism. Ice Bucket Challenge is a campaign whose purpose is raising awareness of disease called ALS(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). Originally the campaign was not only for ALS. Participants could choose any charities they want. A golfer called Chris Kennedy started ALS Ice bucket challenge campaign, because one of his relatives was ALS patient.

The campaign worked in the way that nominate people to do ice bucket challenge and post the video in social media. Many people shared the post and nominate another person. Later, it got attention as celebrities started to participate the campaign. Since celebrities had participated, over 115 million dollars were raised. The money is used to invest in developing drugs and medicines to make better treatment to patients. This is a video that shows celebrities' ice bucket challenge.

This campaign became slacktivism even though people did effort to help. Since the campaign got famous, most people just participated although they didn't know the purpose of this campaign. They just wanted to be popular and they did this for their own. However, even that helped the campaign. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the way slacktivism works is that being famous and known to everyone.

Therefore, we cannot say that slacktivism is a bad way to engage. Even though people do not participate fully, they did their effort, and it helped the campaign.

Activism/Slacktivism

What is Activism?

Activism is the action of using vigorous campaigning to promote political or social changes. 

What is Slacktivism?

Slacktivism is support of political or social causes by small actions and involvement.

The use of social media

Social media has always been used to spread awareness, address issues, and encourage action and engagement. How do they use it? They post and share the causes to spread the word, for example posting about a social cause on twitter. 

How does Slacktivism work?

Slacktivism works by posting about a cause on your social media and using hashtags to represent the cause. I think it is a good way to engage with social issues, because it spreads the word so that people are aware of the situation and you never know, it could make huge differences and changes. For example the #alsicebucketchallenge campaign. Everyone was posting videos of themselves dumping a bucket of ice water on their social media to promote and spread word about the als disease then you donate money after you do the challenge. Many people shared stories about their experiences with als and the stories were so powerful. They touched many. 

The spread of this campaign became so big, it got to famous stars who started doing it too! Kim Kardashian did the ice bucket challenge and it brought a lot of attention. The famous rich Kim Kardashian was getting a bucket of ice water dumped on her. Who wouldn't want to watch. Lol 

All because of this #alsicebucketchallenge, they raised over $100 million dollars for the disease and found medical cures for als!! Amazing what one hashtag can do :) 

Another hashtag campaign that proved slacktivism was effective was #thedress.

Everyone was trying to figure out if they saw a black and blue or gold and white dress. It became so popular and trendy that the Salvation Army decided to use the dress in their campaign for violence against women. 

What did you see though?

It was clearly black and blue.

The hashtag #thedress was used to spread this campaign. The salvation army posted a photo of a bruised woman wearing the dress and posted it on their twitter. Violence against woman is something that the salvation army is working to prevent. It was very smart of them to use #thedress as a campaign to spread word about violence against women, and the use of the image is very powerful. 

Slacktivism has helped to spread word about causes and make huge changes. 

With just one hashtag you can change the world. 

#slactivism

#activism

Yes internet or no internet?

Is this the right path to continue human evolution??

WITH INTERNET?

WE talk to people on the internet like friends, family, strangers, professionals, haters, supporters through many social media plate forms. We love communication through these mediums knowing the consequence- the bad side of the internet. 

Many experts believe that internet is worsening our communication skill in real like, we are losing the motivation to talk and internet with people physically and in fact, they are true. We forgot the beauty of going outside, connect, and talk to people. Now we are all couch potatoes, or a person who has screen addiction who prefer to stay home all the time. 

You know who i'm talking about. I'm talking about you. YES,YOU! 

I personally disagree that the internet is improving human communication in a positive way. 

1. Lost the structure of proper English

 (something all teachers fear) 

The way people talk and write are influenced by the internet. We use "u r" instead of "you are"; use "b4" instead of "before; use "brb" instead of "be right back." 

I had personal experience with writing "internet English" on a formal essay in school. Sad story.. 

There was one time when I was writing an in-class English essay before my lunch break. On the paper, I automatically wrote "u r" instead of "you are" on an academic essay. ON AN ACADEMIC ESSAY. I released as I continue writing my essay, and changed it before I handed in. I was shocked and disappointed in myself although I knew I was in a rush and wrote down the first thing that popped out in my mind. I noticed that I had been spending my time on the internet and use the "internet English" to communicate with multiple people, it was scary. After this incident, I started spelling properly as I communicate to friends online and now, I never struggled to go through my writing and see "u" or "r" on my paper. 

Although I changed, but there are still people, somewhere out there, like the past me who writes as if they are online. 

*dramatic music playing*

FIND THEM AND HELP THEM PLEASE

2. False information/ bias information online: 

Just don't believe them, it's nice to know general information but...

On the internet, anyone and everyone has the freedom to share their opinion on a specific idea incident. However, to what extend are the facts and explanations fake? 

Of course, having access to multiple perceptive from others through the internet are sometimes nice but most of them are bias and fake 

WHY ARE THEY LYING TO US? 

They just want $$$ and more readers= more money. 

Some people kinda just ignore the original purpose of posting online- sharing individual point of view. What do they do instead? They started posting to criticize them instead of mentioning the original purpose of them. The readers are attracted to them, think they're funny and entertaining. Then  they will start sharing it to friends and discuss about it. 

HOWEVER, some people struggle to filter out the fake information in them which is making it difficult for them to believe the things they're reading. 

 "My whole life had been a lie!?!" 

*CRIES* 

People discuss about the bias news articles, and posts, but they're basically making fallible argument where both sides are just wrong...

Wasting time? Yeah, pretty much. 

BUT, these arguments on the internet about useless topics are certainly entertaining to watch. 

And these posts and articles on Facebook are most likely to be RUMORS, DRAMAS, CRITICIZING of some sort to grab readers' attention. 

Do you want to prevent these consequences, leading your existence on the internet to no where?

Yes? 

Well, too bad there are no other solution to prevent that since we don't have any sort of government of internet to guard us- which is basically impossible. There, you don't, you live with it. Live within the ring of fire. 

Just like this dog, he represents all of us 

That escalated fast... 

Do you think reading articles that are bias or false will help us with human communication in a positive way? 

DON'T THINK SO

3. Why can't we just appreciate the time we spend with everyone? 

Do you remember that moment when you are "hanging out" with friends or family but all of them were on their personal electric device? Oh yeah, multiple times right? 

The internet is missing the component of emotions, and everything else!? I honestly don't know how to explain it, but it's SAD. 

Everyone is sitting right beside each other and yet, they are I S O L A T E D  by the "wall of internet." They spend effort and time to make this "hang out" to work and all they do is talking to you through something else when you are literally right in front of them?? 

TALK TO EACH OTHER! 

GET OFF YOUR PHONE!

DON'T BE LAZY!

Using your electronic devices to communicate with family and friends who are far away are fine, it makes you feel like you are still connected by some sort of line..? But, when you spend too much time on the internet and are missing out everything else happening around you then you should reconsider your usage of internet. Put them down and talk to people in front of you. 

Activism or Slactivism? (Blog #5) (David Matson)

Activism:

The definition that google gives is "The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change." This is the definition we will be using, but in the context of social media.

Activism

Slacktivism

Slacktivism is posting about an issue on social media, using a hashtag, donating a little money, but not doing too much overall. It is more virtue signaling than actually caring about the issue and trying to fix it. 

Slacktivism

Uses:

Both activism and slacktivism are used in social media campaigns. Generally, social media campaigns spread and become popular through slacktivism, and then some people will actually take up the cause and become activists. 

Social media really helps to make this possible, because you can see things on the internet, and then share it for all of your friends, and then everyone gets to see it, and support it if they want to. This cannot happen on other platforms, because social media is the only place where it can start from individual people, and then be taken up by many others, rather than having to be started by someone famous or well known or rich, as it has to be everywhere else.
Activism and Slacktivism work together, hand in hand on most social media campaigns. First, there are the activists (or slacktivists) who start the campaign, and then to spread. Social media campaigns spread through all of the slacktivists who just share it, and it then reaches more people. Some of these people will, depending on the campaign, become activists and further the movement.
In the social media campaign #thedress, the whole campaign was based on slactivism, not activism at all. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness of abusive relationships and what to do if you are in one, so all that needed to happen was for people to share the message, or actually do anything.
The social media campaign #blacklivesmatter, however, was a lot more activism. The use of the hashtag exploded after the events in Sanford, Florida, when Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman. There were probably some slacktivists, but thousands of people attended protests and rallies with this campaign.

Slacktivism isn't a bad way to contribute to a social media campaign, because it is how campaigns grow and become popular,  However, if nobody isn't becomes an activist, then nothing will be accomplished. 

Next time you see a social media campaign that you can get on board, I challenge you to go one step further than slacktivism,and actually do some activism.

#hashtag

#slacktivism

slacktivist : anyone who does something in support of an issue or cause that requires minimal personal effort

Just by reading the definition of this term, you would think that slacktivism is a negative form of support, but I disagree. 

I think that slacktivism is a great thing. It's such a great and easy way of spreading awareness of issues, and showing support for a good cause. Anyone is able to participate regardless of what part of the world that they are in. 

Some argue that slacktivism has no effect on the cause, but I disagree. Although #campaigns that are solely based off the online domain may not have a huge direct impact, it raises awareness, it informs the masses and it can become a catalyst for a bigger movement. 

#heforshe

via GIPHY

I think this campaign is a great example of slacktivism. 

#heforshe is a campaign that was created by the women of the UN to promote gender equality.
People are asked to use the # on various social media websites such as instagram, Facebook and Twitter to show their support. They can also sign up to be a part of their website and show support that way.

Although there are not very big physical risks or work being but in, it raises awareness of the inequalities between men and women.

Facebook has also been used by Emma Watson, to gain attention and spread the message. 

#activism

activism is a high risk, vigorous campaigning strategy.

It often involves physical work and interactions, risk, and possible violence. Something more than just a few clicks of some buttons. 

#alsicebucketchallenge

I think this is a good example of a campaign that is both activism and slacktivism.
You could show your support by sharing a video of yourself dumping a bucket of ice water on your head, and also by donating through their website.

This required you to actually go outside and dump the bucket of freezing water, but it also only requires you to push some buttons.

The money raised from this allowed them to conduct further research on this disease, and it enabled them to find a possible cause of this disease.

via GIPHY

why #? 

social media is the perfect platform for slacktivists and raising awareness. we are not able to get on a a plane and go solve every problem in the world, but social media essentially lets us do so. 

You are able to create a conversation that could potentially inspire others to do something to change the world. You can become involved without actually being involved, and the use of short, simple words makes it easier to understand the cause, and essentially create a trend out of it like the ALS icebucket challenge. 

I am proud to say, that I stand with #heforshe.