Social media in general has done a lot to spread information, spur debate, and help (real) activists coordinate their efforts. I am not saying that it is all bad. I am saying that it is mostly bad.
Americans, by and large, are lazy, fat (in every sense of the word), procrastinators that have perfected the art of being lonely together. If one could ask us all at once what the definition of us was and what we stood for, the response would be a cacophony of blubbery sighs, stupid Family Guy jokes, and old movie quotes until it eventually died down and we settled on “whatever the last generation was but, you know, like, uh better, like philosophy two-point-oh but with more (faux) ironic sarcasm”.
It is no surprise that Social Media has allowed the Haves of America to perfect the art of Slacktivism. People click a button to somehow donate rice to some people in some other country SPONSORED BY CORPORATION and automatically display it prominently so everyone can see how “involved” they really are, or as if that wasn’t pathetic enough, change their profile pictures to show solidarity for whatever cause is trendy at the time because it is literally the least they could do while circle-jerking and trying to prove they have accomplished something.
What is worse? People going on a fucking vacation to “help” whatever tropical place had something recently terrible happen to it. Demanding that someone shelter them and feed them and acclimate them and waste enough time and resources as possible just before packing up, going home, and positing pictures all over the place talking about how it touched them and how it was just so sad.
None of this is activism.
Someday, I hope to become a real activist. You can fucking bet that it’s not going to involve retweets and hash tags.
