Published:
05/22/2012 05:06pm
Mobilizing Slacktivists to New Heights
The world witnessed the incredible power of slacktivism with Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign. Regardless of what opinion you hold about Invisible Children – whether you believe them to be absolutely corrupt or maverick human rights champions – it goes unchallenged that slacktivists fueled Invisible Children’s mission to the tune of over 100 million Youtube views. Slacktivism as the simple process of ‘sharing’, ‘liking’, or ‘tweeting’ support for a cause has created an unprecedented level of awareness around a once obscure cause, which put pressure on governments to act. Slacktivism has brought about a government mandated capture of one of the world’s most heinous criminals, but it still has much untapped potential.
Despite slacktivism’s accomplishments, many have labeled its participants as shallow and self-centered – merely concerned with riding the latest trend and appearing altruistic. Critics claim that these do-good ‘sharers’ and ‘tweeters’ simply want to feign benevolence without actually taking action to address the problems they support. Slacktivists are painted out as misinformed individuals who do not put forth the time or effort to conduct their own research about a topic. They see a pretty video starring a bad man and do as told.
But that portrayal grossly underestimates the sincerity of most so-called slacktivists. Sure, there are a few individuals who fit the slacktivist stereotype perfectly. They are the ones who draw the most attention on your news feed and consequently generate the most annoyance. However, the majority of Stop Kony supporters in my social network truly want to do more to help the effort. They are not out for attention. The video moved them so powerfully that they couldn’t just pass it on and settle. They looked into it, spent time thinking about it, talked to others about it, and tried to come up with ways that they could help. Unfortunately, the reality for many young people is that sharing the video and raising awareness was the best way they could help.
This brings about a significant problem: millions of socially conscious, inspired young people who desire to make a difference yet are limited by the scope of possible actions. These issues plaguing humanity touch them deeply and resound in a manner that demands action. They are not satisfied with simply ‘passing it on.’ Volunteering and giving their time, physical and emotional labor to a worthy organization is one good way. But because there is only a finite amount of time in a busy student’s schedule, volunteering is not always possible. An individual may be in a location far from any organizations that address the issue and therefore is unable to give any of their time to help.
Furthermore, most of these individuals do not possess the financial resources to donate a significant amount of money to organizations making a difference. Changing the world with their pocketbooks is not an option.
This leads to the emergence of the “slacktivist”, an individual who demonstrates passion for an issue with ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ rather than taking tangible action towards addressing that plight.
Young social entrepreneurs across the country recognize this problem and the tremendous potential their peers possess to enact material change. They have developed companies that parlay this potential into actual action. Our company, Apps for Action, is mobile app that allows individuals to raise 25 cents for the charities they support each time they download a free app. Services like Apps for Action empower millions of socially conscious individuals with the ability to raise money for the issues they care about as they go about their day-to-day life.
There are several other companies addressing this issue that have inspired us and are having a big impact. Tab for a Cause allows users to raise money each time they open a new tab when surfing the web. PictureHealing raises money each time they share a photo from their phone. Goodsearch allows them to raise money each time th
