The brave new world of slacktivism

by Evgeny Morozov,

Last week, The Globe and Mail ran an article on the history of “slacktivism” (the G&M piece
seems to have grown out of an interview I did with CBC’s Spark a few weeks
ago on the same subject). “Slacktivism”
is an apt term to
describe feel-good online activism that has zero political or
social impact. It gives those who participate in “slacktivist”
campaigns an illusion of having a meaningful impact on the world
without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group. Remember
that online petition that you signed and forwarded to your entire
contacts list? That was probably an act of slacktivism…

“Slacktivism” is the ideal type of
activism for a lazy generation: why bother with sit-ins and the
risk of arrest, police brutality, or torture if one can be as
loud campaigning in the virtual space? Given the media’s fixation on
all things digital — from blogging to social networking to Twitter — every click of your mouse is almost guaranteed to receive
immediate media attention, as long as it’s geared towards the noble
causes. That media attention doesn’t always translate into campaign
effectiveness is only of secondary importance.

The adherents of “slacktivism”
usually point a well-known narrative to justify what they are doing:
while it’s true that the dramatic fall in transaction costs of
organizing activist campaigns has simply opened up the field to many
more participants and issues, there has been no drop in the actual
quality and effectiveness of
these campaigns. It’s easy to dismiss most criticism of
“slacktivism” as simply unproductive: after all, having
thousands of people — most of them previously not involved in any
activist campaigns at all — suddenly start practicing the kind of
click-based “nano-activism” available via Facebook and Twitter
could be extremely useful, if only for specific campaigns that would,
indeed, benefit from increased public attention.

Perhaps, it’s high time to challenge
this narrative and ask a very difficult question: are the publicity
gains gained through this greater reliance on new media worth the
organizational losses that traditional activists entities are likely
to suffer, as ordinary people would begin to turn away from
conventional (and proven) forms of activism (demonstrations, sit-ins,
confrontation with police, strategic litigation, etc) and embrace
more “slacktivist” forms, which may be more secure but whose
effectiveness is still largely unproven?

Let’s not get into trying to find
answers to purely speculative questions like whether the utility of
the very public work of 1000 “slacktivists” equals that of the
very quiet and often unattributed work of one traditional activist.
The real issue here is whether the mere availability of the
“slacktivist” option is likely to push those who in the past
might have confronted the regime in person with demonstrations,
leaflets, and labor organizing to embrace the Facebook option and
join a gazillion online issue groups instead. If this is the case,
then the much-touted tools of digital liberation are only driving us
further away from the goal of democratization and building global
civil society.

Of course, the ideal case here is when
one’s participation in digital activism doesn’t subtract from — and
instead enhances — one’s eagerness to participate in real-life campaigns.
However, it’s also quite possible that a significant portion of the
activist population would be morally content with the “slacktivist”
option alone, preferring not to get too close to more dangerous
activities that are likely to get them in trouble with authorities.
So should we be more careful when discussing the success of most
digital activism campaigns, since they may also have unanticipated
adverse effects on more effective forms of enacting political and
social change? (Of course, the relative effectiveness of one type of
activism over another is a matter of great contention too.)

I don’t really have a good answer here
and am increasingly of the opinion that the only way to conclusively
answer this question is a scientific one: we simply need to start
constructing gigantic surveys, otherwise these insights will forever
stay in the land of the anecdotal. I also think that it might be
useful to search for traces of “slacktivism” in other fields. For
example, is the growing public fascination with “ethical consumerism” likely to erode other more effective (and more
political) forms of protest? Given that some advocates of “ethical consumerism” still cling to the notion that “shopping is more
important that voting,” this may as well be the case.

http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/19/the_brave_new_world_of_slacktivism

Comments

I think if you look at it in