Slacktivism and Armchair Activism

6:49 pm | Uncategorized

I stumbled across this article on Snopes.com today discussion the ineffectiveness of Internet petitions. This is nothing new, of course, but some things are worth revisiting so that they stay fresh in our minds. One of those things is the hypocrisy of armchair activism. Barbara Mikkelson comments:

E-petitions are the latest manifestation of slacktivism, the search for the ultimate feel-good that derives from having come to society’s rescue without having had to actually gets one’s hands dirty or open one’s wallet. It’s slacktivism that prompts us to forward appeals for business cards on behalf of a dying child intent upon having his name recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records or exhortations to others to continue circulating a particular e-mail because some big company has supposedly promised that every forward will generate monies for the care of a particular dying child. Likewise, it’s slacktivism that prompts us to want a join a boycott of designated gas companies or eschew buying gasoline on a particular day rather than reduce our personal consumption of fossil fuels by driving less and taking the bus more often. Slacktivism comes in many forms (and there are many other illustrations of it on this web site; our goal was merely to offer a few examples rather than provide a definitive list), but its key defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of person inspired to participate in the forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing.

For many, e-petitions satisfy the need to feel they are doing good and thus somewhat quell that nagging feeling they should be doing more to make the world a better place. As such, they serve a purpose as an outlet — those who “sign” such missives experience a personal sense of accomplishment in tandem with the warming sensation of having come to society’s aid. Good feels like it has been done in two directions — the signature helping a worthy cause, and the act of signing helping the person who was moved to add his name to the petition. E-petitions are sexy even when they don’t have a hope in hell of helping to accomplish their stated goals because they afford us an opportunity to bestow upon ourselves a pat on the back rather than continue to feel guilty about not doing our part. That nothing is really getting accomplished is almost beside the point; we believe we’ve been part of something worthwhile and so feel better about ourselves.

On its glossary page, Snopes defines slacktivism like so:

We can’t claim credit for having coined this term, nor do we know its actual origin, but we love it nonetheless. Slacktivism is the search for the ultimate feel-good that derives from having come to society’s rescue without actually getting one’s hands dirty, volunteering any of one’s time, or opening one’s wallet. It’s slacktivism that prompts us to forward appeals for business cards on behalf of a dying child intent upon having his name recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records or exhortations to others to continue circulating a particular e-mail because some big company has supposedly promised that every forward will generate monies for the care of a languishing tot. Likewise, it’s slacktivism that prompts us to want to join a boycott of designated gas companies or eschew buying gasoline on a particular day rather than reduce our personal consumption of fossil fuels by driving less and taking the bus more often. Slacktivism comes in many forms, but its defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of the person inspired to participate, through the mechanisms of forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing.

A similar page describes the problem of Armchair Activism. It provides seven tests for armchair activism on its website.

On the University campus, I encounter many students who are busily collecting signatures for petitions or trying to raise awareness for this cause or that. While these students are certainly well-meaning and well-intentioned, all of their noblest effort come to naught for the simple reason that they fail to bring the matters to persons that truly have the power to make changes. Often they make the simple mistake of always going directly to the top of the organization to petition - for example, the President of the University. They also tend to make a mistake by not including a course of action. Every student is for a better learning environment, but a petition for a better learning environment in the absence of sound recommendations for improving student learning will without fail fall on deaf ears. True activism requires arduous toil - not in getting the word out, but in having a word that is worth hearing, a clear course of action to be promoted, and directing the word to those who are in the best position to act upon it. False activism - the slacktivism and armchair activism that characterize so many activists on and off the University campus - makes people feel that they’ve done something good for the world, but nothing more.

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