#ACTIVISM or #SLACTIVISM

I learned the symbol “#” when I was 6.
To me, until 2 years ago, it simply means “sharp”, or more specifically, "raising the pitch of a note by one semitone".
Twitter totally blown my mind by relating the meaning of “#” to the hyperlinked verb “hashtag”.

(interesting history of #)

Netizens use # for various reasons: build up brands, follow trends, run campaigns…The common thing is: they want more people to be aware of something. They want their information to get noticed.

Since its birth in 2013, the little symbol # ignited the search for Joseph Kony, forced governments to take action over girls who were auctioned off as slaves or child brides (at least it tried…), raised more than $70 million dollars for ALS patients and research, spread other news stories such as innocent African American being shot by white vigilantes… The hashtag #Blacklivesmatter not only went viral on social media but even appeared across signs held by hundreds of protestors in the U.S.

Indeed, many hashtag campaigns were noticed and some even spread virally on social media.
But…
Were any changes made because of the hashtag?
Were people really getting the point of the campaign or they just participated for fun?
Does dumping a bucket of ice on your head really make a difference to the world?
Well, like the all answers to good questions, the answer to this one is: YES and NO...The way to define whether a hashtag campaign is "activism" and "slactivism" really depends on how you look at it. Even the same campaign can have aspects of both activism and slactivism.

ACTIVISM-


#ALSIcebucketchallenge. If you don’t know this one, you might not even be on social media at all.
Celebrities from various fields including Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah, Bill Gates, the Kennedy family, Tim Cook, Jimmy Fallon, Kate Upton, George Bush… all accepted the challange. And guess what, Obama declined the challenge, but made $100 donation instead.

- According to the report of the New York Times, in just three weeks after the start of the campaign, the total donation had surpassed over $15M dollars.
- The official ALS website received an increase of 7775% growth of visits from the beginning of the challenge.
- Over 2,500,000 visitors visited the ALSA.org website during the viral status and 11% of them donated, making the total amount of donations more than $70.2M dollars.

All these stats show one thing: thousands of people benefited from the hashtag. I clearly made positive changes to the world.

On the other hand, there are definitely people who only participated for fun and for fashion. The viral phenomenon also received a lot of negative criticisms mainly on the misuse of water. In drought regions, particularly California, the challenge had affected other ongoing charity events.



SLACTIVISM-

Many of the most famous hashtags were started because of tragedy. After Boko Haram militants kidnapped hundreds of girls from a Nigerian boarding school on April 15, an international campaign was raised to pressure the Nigerian government to “Bring Back Our Girls.” In early May, 2014, nearly 500,000 tweets had been sent out with the tag #Bringbackoutgirls.

As another example of the biggest hashtag campaign of 2014, #Bringbackourgirls is seen as a “ BIGGEST CAMPAIGN that resulted in LITTLE ACTION”. At the beginning of the campaign, the steadfast advocates, together with the missing girls’ families, did managed to pressure the government and gained spotlight on the world stage for weeks. The hashtag itself was so well-known and so inspiring that everyone from Michelle Obama to Malala Yousafzai participated in the campaign.

However, the campaign soon became overwhelmed among the garble of news of wars in other corners of the globe, Ebola outbreaks, and ice bucket challenges. Unfortunately, the majority of the 200+ Nigerian girls are still missing until now- some reports even say some of of the girls are already killed. Sometimes, a hashtag itself is just not enough. 

Just like what (Human Rights Watch's Deputy Africa Director) Rona Peligal  said: "locial media campaigns don't solve problems. They are good for putting pressure on governments and organizations for a while, but they are certainly not the be-all and end-all of advocacy."



For better or worse, we are more in tune with the world than any other time of human history. However, in order to change SLACTIVISM to ACTIVISM- to connect the digital movement for real world engagement, practical solutions to the problems is equally important as raising the awareness. Although social media can act as a powerful platform to spread the words, clicking the “Like” button or retweeting is only HALF of the battle.