'Social Media and Activisms'

Written by       : Fernando Savero Suhendra
Published by   : Fernando Savero Suhendra and Namira Alfita
Date                : Friday, 24 April 2020

Caption: Activists in Progress
'Seattle Prop 8 Protest' (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45789087@N00/3033578672) by @edgeplot (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

1.     What has the internet offered activists that they may not have had in the past?

From the famous Protestant Reformation, in which Martin Luther opposed Catholic’s doctrines as well as principles and, thus, compelled churches back to its biblical principles, to the Tiananmen Square’s protest in China, activisms, whether political or social, have evolve as worldwide, vociferous channels for activists to deliver their concerns and unrests to pertaining issues faced. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘activism’ is referred to as “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support or opposition to one side of a controversial issue.” Through social medias, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, activisms had shifted from their typical, public manoeuvres to an online approach, known as ‘slacktivism’, a term interpreted by Cabrera (2017 p. 400) as “an online form of self-aggrandizing, politically ineffective activism” or further described by Christensen, who determined that ‘slacktivism’ has been propelled back since 1995 ‘as a synonym for “armchair activism” (Cabrera 2017 p. 403),  as “political activities that have no impact on real-life political outcomes, but only serve to increase the feel-good factor of the participants.” (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 400) With these adjustments, the connotations of ‘activisms’ are questionable as to whether online ‘slacktivism’ is considered activism, or has it gone beyond the scope of its original intentions.

First, social medias are effective and efficient mediums not only in informing regarding confronted conditions and situations, but also in gathering masses, possessing similar endeavours, to advance towards common goals, which adheres to what Cabrera (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 404) articulated, “A social movement of one is not a social movement at all.” One example of this is during the Arab Spring, where activists were on the uprise in numerous cities in the Middle East, including Iran, protesting against the ruling government. Social medias, particularly Twitter was beneficial in constructing supports for those involved. Mark Pheifle, George’s W. Bush security advisor, commended, “Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for a Noble Peace Prize. (Khan, 2009 as cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 406)

Second, social medias also act as a platform for intellectuals to express themselves on distress issues. Unlike its predecessors, mass medias, social medias are much free from censorships and biases of capitalists’ sides. Gramsci (1971 as cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 410) utter that “all men are intellectuals; one could therefore say: but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals.”

2.     What is your take on ‘slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism’? Have you ever participated in this? What is its value and/or lack thereof?

Looking at the 10 inferences of activisms compiled by Cabrera in her ‘10 Points of Reflection’, which in her views, are guidelines to attain Freire’s ‘conscientizacao’, ‘slacktivism’, although might be strategic advocates, has numerous times downplays values associated with activisms.

First, social medias, due to its personalized, unseen nature are capable of easily hacked and deteriorated, as showcased in Waugh et al.’s (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 404) findings on the 2013 Australian Federal Election, where candidates enhanced their popularities and probabilities to be elected utilising fake accounts to uplift numbers of followers, have their tweets favoured and retweeted. This resulted in misinformation, which sometimes lessen credibility of individuals, particular groups, or even aims themselves and constitute for a removal of activists.

Second, social medias, although bring awareness of pertaining issues, does not comply with Lukes’ terminology of ‘activism’ which necessitate the ‘demonstration of power’. (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 405) One example of this is the Occupy movement, a campaign commenced with the discontent of Wall Street’s covetousness. (McCarthy, 2012; Wollan & Harris, 2011 as cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 405) Although it alerted public of its aim to rally on the issue of income inequality, even to the extent that its lexicon ‘the 1%” being well-recognized, it did not enforce any ‘structural or policy changes’ in regards to its foremost objective, which is to ease income inequality. (Cabrera 2017 p. 405) In addition to its already-put-in efforts, it should have strongly demanded policy makers to revise the published policies.

Third, ‘slacktivism’ tends to expose public narcissism and self-gratification rather than promoting social change and social justice, as what activisms are all about. (Cabrera 2017 p. 407) As seen in Maslow’s pyramid of need, that people, indeed, longs to be recognized and praised, either because of their personalities or their achievements. Problems arise when self-fulfilments overtake hard work in solving implicated issues, resulting in inactiveness and laziness. As Alinsky (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 406) emphasized, “If too much inactivity occurs, the grassroots move on as inactive people become irrelevant.” For a transformation to occur, ones need to be persistent with their visions. That is what empowered ones to persevere during hardships. As Freire (cited in Cabrera 2017 p. 407) appealed, “…it is not possible to change the world without a certain dream or vision for it.” A study shows that children’s self-harms, such as bad behaviours and drop out of schools, is an effect of the incapability of ushering critiques of oppressions. (Cabrera 2017 p. 407)

To conclude, I agree that social medias enriches the spheres of activisms; nonetheless, not all forms of 'online activisms' constituted for what activisms embodied. Personally, I have never participated in it, although in the future I might probably try it. 

Bibliographies:

• Cabrera, N 2017, 'Activism or Slacktivism? The Potential and Pitfalls of Social Media', Journal of Higher Education, vol. 10, no. 4. pp. 400-415
• Gong, R 2015, 'Indignation, Inspiration, and Interaction on the Internet: Emotions Work Online in the Anti-Human Trafficking Movement', Journal of Technology in Human Services, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 87-103