If it's on Facebook, it MUST be true!

Judging Rant: Facebook "Activism"

Let's be honest, Facebook is the worst. If it didn't serve as a great catching up/procrastination tool, I would get rid of my account. Still, I'm on there and get to witness things like last week's Child Abuse Awareness campaign, where people put up pictures of their favorite cartoon from when they were kids in order to raise awareness of child abuse. This raises multiple questions in my mind:

1. To whom are you trying to raise awareness? What exactly is the message? That you yourself are aware that child abuse exists?

2. What do you hope to accomplish by raising said awareness? Suppose that this campaign reached every person with a Facebook account. Would the creator say "Yaaaay! Everyone knows that child abuse exists!" and then call it a day?

3. Why did I not see a single Rugrats character?

I saw the term "Slacktivism" today on a blog I subscribe to, and there really isn't a better way to describe what this is. It would be like some old guy having a heart attack in the mall, and instead of helping him, everyone pulls out their phones and changes their Facebook profile pictures to their favorite picture of a heart to show solidarity with the dying man. Nowadays, awareness is really the last thing that these larger issues need. Do you actually want to make a difference? Donate money to a non-profit doing real work in this area, or go and volunteer with a local group. GET OFF FACEBOOK AND DO SOMETHING REAL.