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