Slacktivism
Definition: The practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media, characterized as involving very little effort or commitment.
Slacktivism describes social media users who take the easy route, “The One-Click Users”, click the like button, repost a photo, stamp an emoji, add a quick comment or hashtag, in an attempt to support a worthy cause. But through these quick actions, people are distancing themselves from responsibility, causing casual action (slacktivism) which makes it relatively meaningless. The idea for this blog started when I got very annoyed with the newest trend on Instagram, featuring the majority of my stories being filled with pictures of peoples pets alongside a tagged feature saying “We’ll plant a tree for every pet photo”. It seemed that no one was actually thinking about the content they were posting and who created the trend and whether it was legit.
Reposting a photo can feel quite apathetic and disconnected but that’s not to say spreading awareness and promoting good causes is the wrong thing to do, but collectively we need to pause and think about why we’re doing it in the first place.
The Good
Do social media trends lead to actual, lasting change in the modern world?
Yes, some of them actually do! Remember back in 2014 we had the ALS ice bucket challenge that had everyone pouring huge buckets of ice on their heads. This challenge was created to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a rare neurological disease that primarily affects the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. The challenge is the most successful social fundraising effort of all time. With more than 17 million people taking part in the challenge and uploading a video, liking and sharing posts and spreading the trend across the world.
The challenge raised more than $100,000 in the summer of 2014, it funded a number of research projects. The project’s researchers announced that they identified a new gene associated with the disease, which experts say could lead to new treatment possibilities and wouldn’t have been possible without the number of donations and raised awareness for the disease. “It’s very exciting because it shows everyone who contributed to the ice bucket challenge that their donation had an impact on the research,” said Brian Frederick, executive vice-president of communications and development at the ALS Association. “The work that Project MinE is doing is really important, and the discovery of this new gene will help us better understand ALS.”
The Bad and the ugly.
The most recent social media trend began with Instagram’s newest ‘add yours’ feature. A post went viral last week, stating ‘We’ll plant 1 tree for every pet picture’. Over 4 million people hopped on the trend. For every picture someone posted of their pet, the pledge was to plant 1 tree, the trend gained traction, with over 4 million people engaging with it and posting photos of their pets. But it also caused massive confusion, as the original poster of the trend remained unknown.
Users started to question who was going to plant the trees? Where they were going to be planted? When and how was someone going to manage this huge tree-planting project?
An Instagram account called ‘Plant A Tree Co.’ posted on their socials admitting that they started the trend. And that 10 minutes after posting the story they recognised the potentially huge effects this could have and quickly deleted it from their story. Below is a reel that they posted after the trend went viral on the official Plant A Tree Co Instagram page.
It was already too late…
Our animal-loving nation was well and truly sucked in, highlighting the true power of the internet and how fast people can latch onto social media trends that are meaningless.
Most people didn’t even consider who ‘Plant A Tree Co.’ are and why were they claiming to plant a tree for every reshare? Were they ever going to plant any trees?
As it turns out the post was simply a ploy for self-promotion. And this isn’t the first time they’ve pulled a trick like this. Back in May 2019 Plant A Tree Co, claimed that they would plant 100 trees every time someone reshared one of their posts to their story. They then deleted the post and yet again no trees were actually planted whilst they gained millions of likes and thousands of followers. They also ran similar social media stunts during the Amazon crisis, Australian wildfires and the Black Lives Matter movement. Taking advantage of these crises for their own benefit, then deleting the post, not following through on their statements and removing themselves from all responsibility. Their actions demonstrate how easy it is for trends to arise, thankfully the latest trend didn’t have any detrimental effects and users were able to enjoy a lot of cute innocent pet photos.
Trends are a super powerful tool. But in this instance, a lot of people (4 million in fact) were very naive to think that ‘somebody’ was going to plant a tree on their behalf in exchange for a photo of their pet “The One-Click Users”. Non-profit organisations and charities need YOU to put your money where your mouth is.
Conclusion
Hopping on the latest trend from the comfort of your smartphone isn’t going to change the world. But there are small things that you can do, like donating money to non-profit organisations, helping with charity fundraising events and using the internet as a portal to learn and pass on your understanding to others.
I believe the majority of people’s actions are coming from a genuinely good place with the things they repost and share but it does make me wonder if people just use it as a way to appease their conscience without having to engage?
Trends are great! They are an amazing way to reach millions of social media users but next time you spot one, stop, pause and do your research into the organization and its claims. Make sure that the trends you share and donate to are actually doing good and making a positive change.
Thanks for reading, if you’ve liked what you’ve seen today and you’d like to receive exclusive Notepad content then be sure to sign up to our Noteworthy Newsletter here.
