Social media sites are supposedly helping those in need with people saving the world from behind their computers and this is clicktivism. It is defined as “the use of social media and other online methods to promote a cause.” and was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The point of this is to utilise the large crowds which occupy social media daily and raise awareness for issues in hope that everyone will engage and help in doing something but the downfall to this however is called slacktivism. Slacktivism is the concept that people ‘liking’ a photo are feeling as though they are contributing to greater causes when in truth it does not achieve anything at all with many photos being posted on Facebook claiming “like if you care” or “comment and we will donate”.
The most famous example of clicktivism is the KONY 2012 campaign which circulated the media. It was run by Invisible Children, a non-government organisation short film that aimed to stop African militia leader Joseph Kony and his army who had been abducting children across Central Africa for 26 years. People all over the world watched the video and bought the KONY pack to raise money and promoted the issue. While clicktivism prevailed in that it did become globally known and that nearly $20 million was raised by the campaign (which according to news.com.au, more of the money raised was spent on promotion and marketing than the actual program), Joseph Kony could not be caught through clicktivism thus resulting in the campaign’s failure.
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