Week 5

This week in psychology of social media we talked about slactivism.
This conversation os so relevant to my life because social media is constantly providing opportunities to be a slactivist. I've been on social media for Kone and ALS and a variety of other causes. I remember wondering how a bunch of 8th graders making a picture their profile was going to end the acts of some terrible person in Africa. Awareness of issues is a good thing and can help solve issues, but in cases like Kone, atleast for my age group, it was largely breeding name awareness and not problem awareness. Very few of my peers could  have actually
Told you what the problem even really was.
I think one problem that arises with slactivism is when we feel like watching a video or reading the caption of a picture makes us well informed on any issue. There is always more to the picture, and there are always multiple view points that should be considered.
Another thing we talked about was crowd sourcing and funding. There are clearly pitfalls with these things, and it seems that they may sometimws foster laziness and materialism, but when it comes to good causes, I think its great that such a magnitude of help can be given because of social media.
Support for a cause can spread so wide and far with social media, in a way that would have been unfathomable before its development. Also the the randomness and omnipresence of social media allows for niche support. People are able to support and learn about things that effect and interest them that may not have the same affect on the masses. The 60s may have been marked by several areas of protest, but todays social media allows for protest against, or support for, many more issues and challenges.
However even in cases like the ALS ice bucket challenge, which really is an area deserving of attention and research, it would seem there are seem potentially negative outcomes. One of these outcomes being that such intense interest on one area deprives other areas of their due attention.
I am a supporter of slactivism, but I think it needs to be accompanied by careful thought and research.
Also it needs to expand our capacity and desire to do good and not fill it. Like the Mormon helping hands video showed, there is still a need for real life sacrifice and service.