Activism or Slacktivism

Hashtag activism is a great way to get millions of people involved with your campaign instantly. Thousands and thousands of people from all around the world can get unified into your one topic that needs attention. All of these participants could really make a difference in your hashtag movement…If it is used correctly.

For example, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, what a success right? Raised millions of dollars, awareness for the disease. But what happened when the campaign caught on to India?

Disaster.

All the sudden people from high school and middle school with no possible way of making any donations were wasting gallons of clean water (which is a very scares resource in India) all for the purpose of being able to post it on Instagram or some other form of social media and use the hashtag to be up with the next new big ‘Trend’ of the Internet. In the scorching India summer there would be poor children on the roads dying of thirst whereas others film themselves poring a big cool icy bucket over their heads and compliment their video with a nice little # to justify that its all to help with ALS awareness.

Yes, the ALS ice bucket challenge raised millions of dollars for that disease, and whole lot of awareness for that one disease, but what about all the havoc it caused elsewhere?

Although, you could argue that raising awareness is another type of activism. Its making the idea stronger and influencing people who can take action to take action. If you call people who put up posters around your community with slogans saying “Stop Littering” or “Time for Change” activists, then you should also be able to call people posting those slogans on the internet, aside a hashtag, also activists.

For example, the #GirlLove campaign influenced a very large number of girls to stop girl on girl hate and encouraged them to compliment one another instead of them constantly being in competition with each other. I think that is a very very important idea to keep in the minds of young girls, and although they may not practice that in real life, its essential to have that constant reminder when you're just scrolling though instagram or facebook. Hashtags on social media have become as much part of our community as recreational buildings or arcades used to be, because now, that is who and what we surround ourselves with and as a result are what a majority of us are inadvertently shaped by. And hashtags like #GirlLove do help influence our society even by just one picture because, if nothing else, it advertises the idea of supporting one another. 

And then, there are Hashtags like #PrayForParis.

In situations like what happened with Paris, there is nothing most people can actually do about the problem apart from just to simply sympathize with the families and people who experienced that tragic event. Yes, temporarily changing your profile picture does nothing to physically or financially help those people. But it wasn't meant for that. It was meant to serve as a symbol of our emotional involvement. And that, I believe, it achieved. 

Hashtags can be seen as activism or slacktivism depending on the way people use it. If the people who are using it, are using it for something they genuinely believe in, and not just for sake of being able to post a cute image of themselves seeming to be socially involved, but for a cause that needs awareness and that needs a big, diverse range of people to get involved, then a Hashtag can make a huge difference.