The Case for Digital Activism: Refuting the Fallacies of Slacktivism

Abstract

Digital technologies have enabled a wider breadth of political participation. The barriers to participate and share political material, and to activate be part of wider political action has been significantly lowered. However, this lowered threshold seems to have brought with it a discussion of what level of activity should be required of political participation. To critics of online political participation the effortlessness of signaling political stances is easily criciised and forms part of a wider critique of the slackers using digtal technology. This slacker activism has been readily denigrated as slacktivism. The goal of this paper is to challenge this derrogative designation. By comparing online and offline activism this paper argues that tthe term does not bring a substantive argument to the discussion of the role of technology in online political participation, but rather is a form of digital discrimination where those uttering the term are more negative towards the potential of technology than aware of it's formative role in the shaping of the activist persona.

The “Fox Eye” Challenge Trend: Anti-Racism Work, Platform Affordances, and the Vernacular of Gesticular Activism on TikTok

“…While it may be tempting to dismiss such forms of activism work as mere clickativism or slacktivism, there is value in their work for accommodating different degrees of political participation (Christensen, 2011; Madison & Klang, 2020). Further, the reality is that these TikTok activists are activating platform-specific knowledge and savvy as they shape their dramatized discursive tactics to compete for both algorithmic and analogue visibility (Abidin, 2021; Bishop, 2019), and to maximize the networked spreadability of their activist discourse.…”

Multimodal online dissident culture in Instagram: A critique of the Turkish economy

“…Babak Rahimi (2011), in his study of Iranian dissident social media, notes that the mobilization of dissent under authoritarian regimes provokes an ephemeral process that delivers spontaneous creative interaction making new communication domains for the expression of dissent. These alternative ways of engaging politically online may also result in connective action as scholars (Bennett and Segerberg, 2012) argue for the case of individualized process, without the requirement of collective identity framing or 'counter-memory' (Foucault, 1980) construction (Madison and Klang, 2020) that speaks to both critical and alternative interpretations of societal events. Indeed, formulating a public under a government that restricts/ limits critical expression presents various challenges for dissident individuals.…”

“…On the other hand, the infamous 'slacktivism hypothesis' (Morozov, 2012) envisions political participation online as low-threshold acts that can eventually ruin more effortful actions offline for participants (Kwak et al, 2018). As such, the digital network of a movement is highly dependent on protests in the physical public sphere rather than online activities (Madison and Klang, 2020). However, others contend that the political realm can be considered in terms of agency.…”

Spread the word: Sharing information on social media can stabilize conservation funding and improve ecological outcomes

“…Halupka (Halupka, 2014) describes slacktivism as "an ignorant, low-level participation which is more self-serving than of practical use." On the other hand, other scholars defend the merits of such digital activism and argue that any form of activism is valuable and legitimate (Halupka, 2014;Madison & Klang, 2020;Piat, 2019). For instance, Parsons (Parsons, 2016) asserted that "slacktivism could have a role to play in promoting positive change, and shouldn't be thought of negatively, but instead as a potential gateway to more to more substantive activism and advocacy."…”

“…Critics lament that slacktivists are unlikely to engage or contribute in more meaningful ways beyond easy (or even lazy) token gestures of support online, such as, liking or sharing social media posts (Morozov, n.d.). Halupka (Halupka, 2014) describes slacktivism as “an ignorant, low‐level participation which is more self‐serving than of practical use.” On the other hand, other scholars defend the merits of such digital activism and argue that any form of activism is valuable and legitimate (Halupka, 2014; Madison & Klang, 2020; Piat, 2019). For instance, Parsons (Parsons, 2016) asserted that “slacktivism could have a role to play in promoting positive change, and shouldn't be thought of negatively, but instead as a potential gateway to more to more substantive activism and advocacy.” Peer communication is an important factor in normative social influences (Geber et al, 2019), and social media posts have been shown to be able to influence behavioral intentions (Kim, 2018).…”