Social media, nowadays, seems to be one of the greatest tools to connect people regardless of location and background. It has significantly changed people’s lives as well as our society as a whole. Example of that is the way social media is increasingly being used for collective action and online activism, which was practically impossible a couple decades ago.

By definition, collective action is “any activity undertaken by citizens with the aim of contributing to public goods: goods that are both non-excludable and non-rivalable” (Margretts et al. 2016). When applying this concept to social media, there are already numerous examples of such actions that involve millions of people from all over the world that can prove the effectiveness of collective action online. From movements such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMetter, #LoveWins, that fight for social justice and equality to raising money and bringing awareness to illnesses such as the ALS ice bucket challenge. In fact, this challenge, which went viral in 2014 raised over 100 million dollars in a month with the involvement of many celebrities and public figures as well as ordinary people (Woolf, 2016).

However, such campaigns are often accused of “slacktivism”, which is “the act of passively supporting causes in order to tap into the satisfaction that accompanies philanthropy, without having to do any heavy-lifting (or heavy spending)” (Davis, 2011). Despite this critique, it can be argued that “slacktivism” is not necessarily a bad thing since in some way it helps bring attention to a certain cause or movement.

All in all, even though there are some controversial opinions regarding the usage of social media for collective action, the many benefits and positive changes that have resulted for society should be appreciated instead of overlooked.

 

 

References:

Davis, J., (2011) Cause Marketing: Moving Beyond Corporate Slacktivism [online], Evidence Based Marketing [Viewed 5 May 2019]. Available from:  http://evidencebasedmarketing.net/cause-marketing-moving-beyond-corporate-slacktivism

Margetts, H., John, P., Hale, S., and Yasseri, T. (2016) Political Turbulence: how social media shapes collective action, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Woolf, N., (2016) Remember the ice bucket challenge? It just funded an ALS breakthrough [online], The Guardian [Viewed 5 May 2019]. Available from:  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/26/ice-bucket-challenge-als-charity-gene-discovery