When will we realize that our Twitter and Facebook activism aren't going to cut it?
In the old days, people watched the ASPCA or Feed the Children commercials on TV but rarely called the number on the screen to make a donation. In today's social media universe, our indifference as a culture remains, except now with a retweet or share everyone can see us making the statement, "Look at me! I'm aware of this issue and I care!"
Raising awareness is all well and good, but let's face it: almost none of us actually follow through on our support for the causes we post about on social media. We just like to be seen as socially aware and morally upstanding. In doing so, we are sending out empty gestures of empathy and support and promoting a lack of awareness. Take the Kony 2012 craze for example--everyone posted and hit like and tweeted about the child sex slave and soldiering atrocities committed by Joseph Kony. The hype had us believe that Kony was currently rampaging across Africa in the open. But almost no one seemed to read into the issue beyond its sensational surface. Those who did found out that Kony hadn't even been seen in several years at the time of #KONY2012. Beyond that, how many of us actually donated to Invisible Children, the organization behind the movement? Probably not the majority.
We ought to do better than to settle for the complacency of keyboard activism. There are too many pernicious issues brewing here at home. We have crushing student debt, which suffocates so many young people and their futures. We have way too many people in prison. We have people getting abused by the police. We have American jobs getting shipped overseas. We have an obscenely low minimum wage. We have intense debates over gay marriage, abortion and civil rights raging all across the country. Most of us are aware of at least some of these issues, but in true millennial fashion, we rage about them online and don't bother going out and actually doing something to impart change.
We must do better if we want to build a future that is fair. The establishment is stealing away at our quality of life, and we have been letting them slip by while we complain about it on Twitter and Facebook. So when we are angry about student debt, minimum wage, institutional racism, income inequality or anything else that affects us young people, let's call our representatives and voice our concerns. Get out and stage a protest or benefit to raise awareness. Actually donate to a political candidate or charity you support. Just do something. We have got to reclaim what is ours--the future! Sure, real activism is harder work than tapping fingers on a keyboard or screen, but it sure beats being doomed to a future with the knowledge of what could have been, if only we had been more proactive.
