1. #slacktivism

2. We are…
Active participants - The nature of connections in the networked environment and the free or low cost of speaking across boundaries, has altered our capacity to become active participants in the public sphere as opposed to its passive readers, listeners, or viewers (Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, p.212).
Public communications.
Voice.
Used for advocacy and activism by many.

3. Slacktivism!
Clicktivism is digital activism, and it refers to the use of social media and the Internet to advance social causes.
Slacktivism– “The act of showing support for a cause but only truly being beneficial to the egos of people participating in this so-called activism. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. … these low-cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them” (
Treats activism as something to be marketed.
“[Slacktivism] accepts that the tactics of advertising and market research used to sell toilet paper can also build social movements… Political engagement becomes a matter of clicking a few links. In promoting the illusion that surfing the web can change the world, clicktivism is to activism as McDonalds is to a slow-cooked meal. It may look like food, but the life-giving nutrients are long gone” (

4. Through publication of our ideas, opinions, we enter public discourse.
Users’ voices and protests are heard – they become activists.
But..
Is it too easy?

5. UNICEF, Sweden 2013 Survey of the Swedish public.
1 in 7 people believed that liking an organisation on Facebook was equal to donating money.
Campaign launched.
“Likes don’t save lives. Money does.”

7. Self-perception
When the small act of token support is very public in nature and people can signal to others that they have already helped the cause -- they actually are not more likely to help later – 2013 Study, University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, published in Journal of Consumer Research.

8. Discussion Questions
Do you think that the networked public sphere is an effective/efficient platform for activism?
Share an example of an online campaign that either:
engaged you to pursue real world action, or
convinced you that real world action was not necessary