I had a "friend" on Facebook who searched groups for every one of these issues, "like"-ing them all within a 10 minute period of time. It wasn't because they believed in any of this, it was just so they could fill up everyone's newsfeed with how socially-conscious they are while simultaniously quoting this movie and trolling for attention. I immediately blocked them.
The attempt to deny a man of basic necessities, be they cap'n crunch or unlimited access to you jizz is oppression in its worst form. These are things every man of every race and creed has a right to. Let no one stand in the way of a desire for diabeetus from sugary cereals or busting nut to the point of shooting dust. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
Bunch of slack jawed faggots around here. If someone shits me on FB, I ban them, same as real life. Option B is writing hatefull shit after each of their comments until they ban me. Currently involved in a campaign against a mates girlfriend, man that girl can soak up some punishment. Also I don’t sign petitions unless there’s a prize involved. Won a BBQ once signing up to get a bottleshop on a street the council didn’t want one because it was “near a school” It was a fucking primary school, I don’t think the 8 year olds were getting JD & coke even with sweet fake ID. There is now a drive-thru bottle shop sitting proud in that spot. The BBQ failed after 3 years though.
The only petition I signed online was last year. Sonic had an online petition to open up a few locations in Connecticut. It worked, and I found out I dont like Sonic very much.
The only one I have ever signed was along the same lines but for Arrested Development. I sure showed them. People have the Power!
I think slactivism is a symptom of a much larger death of ideologies. No-one really believes in anything anymore so people just ignore the bad things in the world and sign the odd petition. The left used to believe in Socialism and it's power to save the world. Young union members would get on boats from all over the world and sail to Spain to fight fascism. Could you ever imagine the 'Stop the War Coalition' or the 'Socialist Workers Party' sending a group of people over to help the rebels in Libya?
Actually, you're kinda wrong. If only because the I'm With Coco thing WORKED. Had it not been for the huge outpouring of support for Conan all over the Internet, TBS never would have taken a chance on him. He was seen as a disappointment at first on the Tonight Show, remember. But because he had this massive following all over the internet, it was a no-brainir for a cable network to put him on the air. So, slacktivism actually won that one. FOCUS I'm one of the assholes who thought the buzz over Snakes on a Plane was going to make it the biggest movie of the decade. Fuck you, internet. Never again.
You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Not going to go full on late-night-nerd here, but I think you have a serious misunderstanding of the situation. Just a couple things... -The money Conan got paled in comparison to the money he would have earned if NBC hadn't jerked him around for years, lying to both him AND Leno about their plans, trying to hedge two shitty plans instead of picking a side and committing to it. Also, a huge sum of that money was given to the staff that uprooted their lives and moved across country for him and were going to be out of work until the clause keeping Conan off of TV ran out. If you did the numbers Conan would have earned roughly three times that amount if he had signed with another network back in the early 2000's and continued his success. -Late night TV, hell....TV in general, is run off of advertising dollars. Common knowledge. Ratings are indicative of a show's success, but they need to be broken down into demographics that are important to each specific show. When Conan first took over The Tonight Show and even when it was "slipping", he was still in the lead with the most important 18-34 male demographic. Those are the sponsor dollars that matter. -The whole "I'm with Coco" campaign has gotten blown out of proportion. It was a groundswell of support that almost no one had ever seen before (and something that the Conan team had no part in creating other than being the focus of it), and in a manner that no one had ever seen (simultaneous TV coverage, Twitter, print, Facebook, every blog, etc) but it had very little effect on Conan landing another deal. What it did do was create a point of leverage for the Conan team when negotiating with TBS. They already had a built in, completely created portal for their fans to use as a base of home operations. The website, the show, the rights to the material, complete creative control, etc...EVERYTHING is owned by Conan and his company, something that in their area of the entertainment industry only a handful of people can say they have (Louis CK and Letterman are close, but Letterman deals with a network at the end of the day and Louis CK doesn't have the reach or financial clout Conan has). There's a lot more to it, but just read The War For Late Night by Bill Carter
I use slacktivism as an opening to get into heated flame wars with people I can barely remember ever meeting. It's good fun. I did join the Everybody Draw Muhammed Day thing though (back when it was like only 2,000 people, I'm cooler than you). But, I also drew a cartoon, so I don't know if that counts as slacktivism or not: Spoiler And hell, at least they aren't chuggers (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chugger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chugger</a>). You have to actively read stuff from slacktivists, and can click ignore on people who do it too much. Chuggers are working to get in your way.
This might cross the "no religion" line, but... Here's one I'm trying to understand, even though I know that I never will: When slacktivism and religion meet. For example, I saw this post today: This was posted by a girl whose mom has cancer. I've seen many posts like this and I can't wrap my head around it. Do they think this really helps or do they want a whole bunch of e-sympathy? I'm sure I'm an asshole for questioning the thoughts of someone who has a loved one that is dying, but I can't help to think they also want people to feel sorry for them. Then again I think praying for anything is pointless. My question is: Is this Slacktivism?
If you ask me, what defines slacktivism is narcissism. The real point of charity and activism is that it doesn't matter how strongly you feel about something, or how many tears you shed. What matters is that you either give money (money that is used for its intended goal) or donate your time and effort for the betterment of someone else's life. The people benefiting from these efforts don't really give a shit what your motivations are, as long as you help. Slacktivism turns this on its head: you do absolutely nothing useful, and it is all about making you feel good, and projecting an identity to your facebook friends that you are the kind of person who cares about this sort of thing. Even though your friend might not be agitating for a specific cause, it still fits the bill of someone doing something that might on first blush come across as being for other people, but is really all about themselves. But on the topic - with the breast cancer nonsense that envelops Facebook every November, I am convinced that I could put up a few official-looking posters around and inform people that the new way to raise breast cancer awareness was to hop around on one foot while wearing your t-shirt backwards in the middle of traffic, and they would do it.
Prime example here. I agree wholeheartedly with the author, if you want to make a difference, get off your ass or get out your wallet, don't fucking say "orange" as your facebook status.