What do Troy Davis, Occupy Wall Street, Kony 2012, and Trayvon Martin all have in common? They are all movements in which we have tweeted, posted about on our Facebook wall, or even went out in protest of. I love to see people who know what’s going on in the world, but I pose these questions: Do we support these movements because we actually care? Or do we support these movements simply because they’re flooding our Timelines, and we don’t want to feel left out?
Now to be clear, by no way am I bashing a positive movement – but it seems “Fighting for the Cause” is merely a trend of the times. How much research have you conducted on a subject before you decide to retweet someone? How many articles did you read before deciding to get involved? Before being for or against a so-called movement, I would think one would want to know the complete details of each situation.
We also have to ask ourselves, how effective is my support if it never goes beyond my phone/computer screen? Supporting a cause as a spectator is great, but being active is better! I could never imagine if the Greensboro Four protested via twitter. How effective would they have been if they had? Picture Dr. King doing such a thing as this, we wouldn’t be nearly as far along. Which brings me to my point: if you’re going to stand for something, know the details, and be truly for the cause.
Over the past few years I’ve seen these short-lived movements start off so big, then I see them quickly forgotten with not so much as a solution. Troy Davis was all over my Timeline the day of his execution, the following day I saw no more than five mentions. If people were really for Troy Davis, their protests would have lasted long after his death. The same goes for Jena 6; thousands went down and protested, but it was again easily forgotten. But hey, these are just my thoughts – without sheep, the world wouldn’t need shepherds…
- Domo
Do we support these movements because we actually care? Or do we support these movements simply because they’re flooding our Timelines, and we don’t want to feel left out?
I suppose my response – What does it matter?
I’m glad that there’s a culture encouraging, and even creating a peer pressure, of activism.
Some people RT just to not be square, but in order to even have a conversation about it folks need to do some research.
Hell, even a quick google search is better than the attention that would’ve been paid previously.
Which is none.
I’m a researcher, by occupation title and by nature. I like to know things that are going on, and am always wary of everything I see.
Hence all the shade I threw on the Kony issues.
Kony, IMO, is one of the better examples of social-media-’activism’ gone wrong.
And people THOUGHT they researched.
They watched the documentary, and read a few blog posts about Kony – and that was it.
I’ll reserve my full thoughts on that, but in short, that died quickly and it should have.
However these actual marches, and actual petitions are getting people to stay more in tune with things they otherwise may have ignored.
Makes me smile a bit.
I would much rather encourage people to actually care on their own,
but that’d be a huge societal shift. One step at a time?