The Liking Situation
i’ve seen
a lot of things i’ve seen the time when
women’s jeans came with fake
pockets i mean come on
if you’re just gonna make a little flap
or a pocket that’s only one
inch deep why even put it there
i’ve seen people put peanut butter on
one slice of bread
and then spread the jelly on top
you put peanut butter on one slice jelly
on the other
and then you put the two together not
calculus
people i’ve seen people
debate that climate change doesn’t exist
i mean i guess we were all going to die
sometime soon anyway
i’ve seen so many things that i decided
to post about it on twitter
i consider myself a crusader
eventually i realized that sitting in
the bathroom and angrily tweeting how i
couldn’t open a pickle jar
didn’t make me an activist
it made me the former president of the
united states
but i’m not alone we all seem to think
that by merely
liking something on social media we are
activists toward a movement
for example when i first heard about
george floyd’s death
i remember myself posting articles on my
instagram story
trying to spread awareness on the issue
we all did
we were all mad at the lack of the
action on the issue
we posted black squares we changed our
profile pictures
we were disgusted
but with this joint of emotions that we
all felt
i noticed some things we lack to do
people that foreign george floyd breona
taylor ahmed arbory and so many others
like them
after we post about a movement we seem
to entirely forget about it afterwards
this leads me to my central concern
today
by trying to spread awareness on the
internet and other online platforms
we deem ourselves activists we’ll
analyze this problem through three steps
first we’ll look around for our real
pockets
and see how deep of a problem this is
next we’ll take a bite into our
correctly
made sandwiches and taste how this
problem was made
and then finally we’ll debate some
solutions
and bring an end to this liking
situation
now kind of like how trump messed up the
we messed up the ideology of activism
public streets and spaces from time out
of mind
have been reserved for the purposes of
assembly
these places have been part of the
rights privileges
immunities and liberties of citizens
set the u.s supreme court ruling in 1939
when defending the ability to go out and
protest on streets
today we believe that by clicking on a
light
post with them the same amount of action
as going out and participating in a
rally
we don’t realize that some actions
are more constructive than others
today there is a lack of real activism
instead replaced by slack division
angenie morizov in his book to save
everything click
here define slack as an app term to
describe
feel good online activism that has
zero political or social impact
this zero impact can be seen especially
around the world today
when we heard about the numerous covet
cases pop up locally
nationally and globally we deemed our
work done to contain the virus as soon
as we used
hashtag flatten the curve
but did we even hold our own family and
friends at hannibal when they wouldn’t
even wear a mask
just recently when we heard about the
race the recent spike in asian
hate crimes we deemed our work done
as soon as we pulled out our thumbs and
typed
asian lives matter
but did we ever google
the victim’s names the repercussions
they face right now
and the after effects they’re suffering
through
right now media muslims are being forced
into concentration camps where they are
forced to renounce their fates by the
government
who knows the next thing that’ll capture
our attention
and allow us to remain in our states
now kind of like how i feel like i’m
doing work when i’m
actually cheating off of my friend next
to me we feel like we’re doing work when
we
say hit that like button but
why do we feel this way david b feldman
an associate professor at santa clara
university explains
as humans we have a sort of
psychological desire
to partake in political matters this
itch can only be satisfied if we are
under the illusion
that we are taking action
slacktivism is dangerous because it’s
enough to satisfy that illusion
thus the more spread selectivism is the
more inefficient action results
inherently promoting no activism at all
but other than our desire to take action
there’s also our seek for others
approval
when we’ve seen that others have seen
that we like something
we feel confident that we appear good in
their eyes
thus with our desire to be as good human
beings being fulfilled
we don’t see any need to commit to doing
anything else
in fact in a recent study published by
the university of british columbia
it was seen that those who partook in a
form of public token support
were just as likely as to take action
as those who hadn’t been even exposed to
the movement at all
that means that if you were to only go
like something
you’ve done the same amount of action as
someone who didn’t even know the
movement
existed
but then there are those of us who truly
believe
that by liking something or double
tapping a hashtag
we’ve done the best that we can do
that that is the most that we can do
in response to this likely situation
former president barack obama well
summarizes the issue with these words
that’s not activism
that’s not change
if all you’re doing is casting out
stones
then you’re not going to get that far
in order to cast something more than
stones or
likes in this situation we have to
realize that there is something more
that we can
always do now in a gamer sport
in order to win you have to have a game
plan on how to win
if you don’t well that’s how you end up
like me
in speech and debate a plan gives
certain ideas on how to edit
some form of action something that
many movements don’t have in order to
combat
activism we have to do something
now i’m not saying to completely abandon
the idea of social media
i’m just saying that only
starting something on twitter isn’t
a movement that only liking something on
isn’t an action while those things may
bring attention to a cause
they don’t constitute for it
to understand this situation mary
frances barry
a historian at the university of
pennsylvania and one of the key founders
of the free south africa movement
helps us realize that for the media to
cover something
the people in it have to do something
which is why showing up is still
required
something that we can all do whether we
realize it or not
is to go vote
this year we’ve had the highest turnout
in the country’s history
and we need to keep holding each other
accountable
maintaining that it remains that way
we as the public have the power to
decide who comes into office
and makes a change we
have the power to decide if we want to
make a change
last year i was only 17.
but you better believe that this year
and in the future i will be the scariest
thing
that you can imagine i will be a woman
i will be a muslim and
i will vote
i will make a difference because i will
be there every day
we all can we can force politicians not
to dismiss
us as likes
but as people who care and demand action
and will vote
today we’ve explored how we’ve lost the
ideology of activism
due to our lack of knowledge and
illusion of action to combat slacktivism
we have to be present in the movement
not
just online we have to bring an end to
this pseudo-action
and call upon real action
then can we bring it together and all
band together
and bring an end to this liking
situation
thank you