Thoughts on ‘slacktivism’

October 24, 2010 in Thoughts
Tags: activism, Australia, Internet, online activism, personal opinion, politics, slacktivism

The term ‘slacktivism’ is bandied about from time-to-time without really considering what it really means. It’s often used by slack mainstream media shock-jocks and morning hosts like it’s a ‘cool’ term to make them look hip.

Although I think it’s a nonsensical term in the first place.

Thinking about this topic recently led me to write down some of those thoughts. [I want to use this post as a thread for others to add their thoughts – for and against – and for me to keep updating.]

It’s use fails to recognise the complexities of online campaigning. It’s all too easy to wave away signing an electronic petition or sending an email as being slack. What this fails to recognise is that:

anything that gets people involved in issues important to them is a positive result;
participating in online activism can lead to participating in on-the-ground activities; and
online actions can and do have an impact when concentrated on a specific goal.

Though when you consider some of the aspects to online campaigning, it becomes evident that the term ‘slacktivism’ doesn’t even really apply. There is much more to activism than actions and there is a great deal more involved with online activism. It belies the difficulty in producing compelling copy that engages people to sign an electronic petition or send an email.

I do recognise that online actions can be low-level activism. However these kinds of interactions can lead to longer term engagement. It is possible to take people along with you as activities are escalated during a campaign. It’s not necessary to have people out on the streets immediately. But by engaging people online through low-level activism, it is possible build up confidence to participating in on-the-ground activities. And in a more important way, it can lead to stronger ties with supporters and activists as they take on the journey of the campaign. This can be invaluable during vital times of a campaign where it’s necessary to help spread the word about activities. These ties can also help drive people from the keyboard to a local rally or campaign meeting.

Just look at how social networking sites are being used by grassroots and political campaigns to find and engage supporters and activists. True this kind of activism is higher-level but can be done easily and relatively quickly. And through engaging supporters in lower-level activism it can build their confidence to do higher-level activism, as mentioned above.

Furthermore the term ‘slacktivism’ belittles the work of those that organise and campaign online and the effort involved, as well as those people that sign electronic petitions or send emails to politicians or captains of industry. I refute that people sign e-petitions and/or send emails willy-nilly. It still takes someone to make a conscious decision to read the action alert, and then decide whether they’ll support it, if they read the entire alert at all. It then takes time to fill out the necessary details to submit your name to an epetition or send an email. There are a lot of points along the way for a potential supporter to disengage – ignore/delete the alert, close the window or navigate away.

Generally though, to cut a long story short, I prefer to use the retort: