Clicktivism….a few links
The debate about clicktivism (online activism) is raging on… is it an effective substitute for good old-fashioned face-to-face activism? does it encourage shallow, almost meaningless engagement? is it the way forward? are local groups a thing of the past. All good stuff.
Political Dynamite have just uploaded a clicktivism post sparked by 38 Degrees recent, and very successful, forests campaign. It’s worth a read, but follow the link to the Our Kingdom post for the full experience!
February 24, 2011 @ 2:28 pm
Nice link / post, and a good view of the campaigning Zeitgeist.
Do we win campaigns by Blitzkrieg; cf the Nestle campaign, and their facebook disaster? – not to diminish the hardwork and long hours put in by people helping them to help them make that disaster.
Or down in the trenches, slogging away on an issue, collecting postcards, lobbying politicians, organising public meetings and photo ops; cf the FoE campaign for a climate change law (or the Kingsnorth campaign).
I’d embrace the diversity of tactics, that makes up the movement. But there again I know my place, down in the mud.
Richard
March 4, 2011 @ 10:52 pm
I read somewhere that the term, ‘slacktivist’ was used as a synonym for clicktivist. In other words I can sit at my desk and click, but not do much else. On the other hand, I’d like to reclaim the term, ‘slacktivist’ as someone who gets energetic and does stuff that’s not about their own gratification, but remembers that…food tastes good if you spend time on it, gardening is fun, walking, swimming, cycling, dozing and so on are also part of life. And if you don’t have time for life, what’s the real quality of all that time you’re giving to the cause?