Activism and protest
Clicktivism is a blend of words click and activism. In the light of this, clicktivism is just a form of activism in which conventional methods of communication e.g. telephone, word of mouth, etc. are replaced by social media. Of course these actions are largely conducted online via Twitter or Facebook to galvanize protests, facilitate boycotts, and sign petitions for example. It may look as a powerful tool which could deeply affect politics and social changes. However, Gladwell (2010) argued that social media (and clicktivism) are never going to change anything if they do not relate to the world offline. In other word, he believed that social media and/or clicktivism are just a virtual communities in which without any real actions or actual causes they (online users clicking or supporting campaign) won’t be harmful for and/or make any change in a real world. Gladwell also pointed out that clicktivism, in fact, minimizes people’s perception of activism to a mere click, giving people a shallow sense of participation with no incentive to take further action (Flaim 2013). He maybe either right or wrong.
Right?
Technically, social media relationships are built around ‘weak-ties’ or friend of friend of friend. Once your friend support and click to join an activist group, Facebook updates on your newsfeed. You, because of curiosity of what and why you friend support that group, then also click to obtain and ‘follow’ a trend. The more friend of yours ‘like’ the group, the more likely you are going to do the same thing. From this point, that is not because you are really concern about the social issues or problems, you become an online activist or clicktivist just as a result of curiosity and friend’s effect. I experienced the same thing when clicked and supported Avaaz without any knowledge about this organization and of course I failed to follow or participate in rallies or any kind of actions. So clicktivism does not work in my case.
Wrong?
An incredible instance of heroic clicktivism successes was Arab Spring; or
A father avenges his daughter’s wrongfull death via massive online petition (135,000 people stood behind his cause and signed the petition). President Obama the signed a law that stipulates health coverage for the victims; or
More closely to Victoria, Australia, Burger Off campaign has been running for 2 years and hasn’t stopped yet even McDonalds already launched the 24h restaurant in Tecoma last month. Online activist not only attracted more than 90,000 people signing petition but also raised the money to send their representatives to Chicago to take the campaign to McDonalds’s headquarter in USA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU02im37AdM#action=share
In short, some people dismiss this sort of online activism, or clicktivism, as lazy, disengaged or even pointless, but the bottom line is that it’s catching on because it has proven to effect change. Meanwhile, while at all online petitions and campaigns produce direct results, at worst they help spread awareness and empower people who otherwise might not have the channels to support or promote a cause (Holmes, 2013) Thanks to social media, now anyone with an internet connection can help to do it easily and quickly, simply by sharing information about the issues they believe in with their friends and peers.