Social Change, Activism, & Slacktivism, What's That?

In this generation, social media takes up most of our lives. Whether it be through trends, socialising, and influence, social media is the common factor. Today, Sera and I will be looking at topics like social change, activism, and slacktivism, and how social media plays a role in each of these topics. We’ll also be exploring possibilities and risks social media offers to activists when trying to drive social change.

What is:

Social Media

• Social media includes sites like Twitter and Facebook. Kruse et al. suggests that on social media platforms, people can gain attraction through millions of users who connect digitally online. (2018:1)

Social change

• Social media plays a crucial role in social change. This is because social media can easily impact basic structures of society or certain groups of people online. Through trends, new ideas, and creativity, the possibilities are endless. (Cabrera et al. 2017:3)

Activism

• “The revolution will be Twittered,” as he saw social media playing a central role in fostering social change. (Cabrera et al. 2017:1) Activism on social media means using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media to talk about important problems like politics, the environment, or culture. People share information and try to get others to care about these issues.

‘Slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism’

• Slacktivism or clicktivism is a political activities that have no impact on real-life political outcomes, it only serve to increase the feel-good factor of the participants (Cabrera et al. 2017:1)

What possibilities and risks does social media offer activists attempting to drive social change?

Social media offers activists unprecedented opportunities to drive social change by reaching a wide audience, mobilising supporters, and shaping public opinion. However, the risk of shallow engagement, misinformation, and limited offline impact underscore the need for strategic and thoughtful approaches to ensure that online activism leads to meaningful change.

Reference List

Kruse M. L, Norris R. D, & Flinchum R. J (2018) ‘Social Media as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media’, The Sociological Quarterly, 59(1):62-84, https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2017.1383143

Cabrera N. L, Matias C. E, & Montoya R (2017) ‘Activism or Slacktivism? The Potential and Pitfalls of Social Media in Contemporary Student Activism’, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000061