Slacktivism

Slacktivism (slactivism or slackervism, a portmanteau of slacker and activism) is a pejorative term for 'feel-good' measures in support of an issue or social cause. Slacktivism is showing support for a cause with the main purpose of boosting the egos of participants in the movement. The action may have little effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfied that they have contributed. Slactivism is often a form of virtue signalling. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low-cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them, although this assumption has been criticized. Many websites and news platforms have integrated social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter into their interface, allowing people to easily 'like', 'share' or 'tweet' about something interesting they saw on the Internet. People can now express concern about social or political issues with nothing more than the click of a mouse, raising the question of what is actually being accomplished by these 'likes' when very little thought or effort is required. Slacktivist activities include signing Internet petitions, joining a community organization without contributing to the organization's efforts, copying and pasting of social network statuses or messages or altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services. Research is beginning to explore the connection between the concept and modern activism/advocacy, as groups are increasingly using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS describes the term 'slacktivist', saying it 'posits that people who support a cause by performing simple measures are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change'. The term appears to have been coined by Dwight Ozard and Fred Clark in 1995 at the Cornerstone Festival. The term was meant to shorten the phrase slacker activism, which refers to bottom up activities by young people to affect society on a small, personal scale (such as planting a tree, as opposed to participating in a protest). The term originally had a positive connotation. Monty Phan, staff writer for Newsday, was an early user of the term in his 2001 article titled, 'On the Net, 'Slacktivism'/Do-Gooders Flood In-Boxes'. An early example of using the term 'slacktivism' appeared in Barnaby Feder's article in The New York Times called 'They Weren't Careful What They Hoped For'. Feder quoted anti-scam crusader Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes.com, who described activities such as those listed above. 'It's all fed by slacktivism ... the desire people have to do something good without getting out of their chair'. Another example of the term 'Slacktivism' appeared in Evgeny Morozov's book, Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (2011). In it Morozov relates slacktivism to the Colding-Jørgensen experiment: In 2009, a Danish psychologist named Anders Colding-Jørgensen created a fictitious Facebook group, as part of his research. On the page, he posted an announcement suggesting that the Copenhagen city authorities would be demolishing the historical Stork Fountain. 125 Facebook members joined Colding-Jørgensen's page within the first day, and the number of fans began to grow at a staggering rate, eventually reaching 27,500. Morozov argues the Colding-Jørgensen experiment reveals a key component of slacktivism: 'When communication costs are low, groups can easily spring into action.' Clay Shirky also similarly characterized slacktivism as 'ridiculously easy group forming'.