In my last post, I had a go at 'slacktivism', the act of doing nothing in the name of a noble cause. The best argument for doing something inconsequential to the stated goal (opposing child abuse, in this case) boiled down to "what harm is it doing?" The harm it was doing, seemingly minimal, is muddying up the waters for legitimate campaigns. The 'awareness-raising' exercise of slacktivist campaigns draws attention away from actual charitable foundations and campaigns; raising awareness for a slacktivist campaign decreases awareness of movements that provide tangible benefits to society.
This is about Facebook again. Specifically, this is about the difference between useful things and useless things Facebook can do. You may be tired of me bleating about superficial social networking, but I'm not the one that made Zuckerberg Time Magazine's Person of the Year for his tireless efforts eroding trust in authority and decentralising power, unlike some talentless hacker who clearly has done nothing important in the service of truth or justice this year. But I digress.
Of all my Kiwi friends on Facebook, almost everyone I saw posting during the first week or two of December were re-posting the Change your Profile for Child Abuse! meme. It got exposure. What has failed to get any exposure on my Facebook friends list (except for the fantastically geeky Dee, and the cerebral Angie, who picked up on the campaign when I pointed it out) was the brilliant Auckland City Mission Christmas Appeal's Become an Angel campaign. Auckland City Mission is a brilliant little group, an organisation that feeds the underprivileged and those fallen upon hard times (common in the recession), run a detox centre for drug addicts/alcoholics, and the Calder Centre health clinic. And, of course, the Christmas Appeal!
This year, the Marion Davis Memorial Trust, managed by Guardian Trust, stumped up a $10,000 donation for the Christmas Appeal, to be released as a result of public participation in the Become an Angel campaign on Facebook. The deal is this: Around Auckland, there are a number of Angel Wing stickers put up on walls, bus-stops, and other areas of heavy pedestrian traffic flow. They want you, yes YOU, to have yourself photographed in front of one of these wing-design stickers, and then to share that photo on the Auckland City Mission's Christmas Appeal Facebook page. For each person photographed and shared on their page, the Trust will release $5 of the $10,000 donation to the Auckland City Mission. That may not sound like much, but I can see the reasoning behind it. This is a profile-raising campaign, essentially a free advertising spot for the Auckland City Mission, and I suspect they're hoping for a bit of a 'viral' bump from hip, charitable young'uns of the social-networking generation (oh gawd I feel like a hack for writing that).
This is 'slacktivisim' that may actually do something positive! All you have to do is have your photo taken, and upload it. Same thing you're doing anyway, right? You don't need to put any cash on the table, the Marion Davis Memorial Trust has that covered for you. And because this requires public participation, it raises the public profile of the City Mission. People tend to ignore the happy, smiley donation collectors on Queen Street, but pretending to be an angel on Facebook is something fun you might actually do... maybe. If you raise awareness for a charitable organization, there's a chance that someone will act on that knowledge and contribute to a group doing something to make the world a better place. Sadly, this campaign hasn't taken off with the same vigour that the cartoon meme did, probably because it requires a little bit of effort so it can't spread as easily (and because it's not a global meme). And perhaps the earlier slacktivism is partly responsible for siphoning away the altruistic will.
I'd like to add that it's not over yet! There's still a few more days until Christmas, you can still get out there and get snap-happy for charity. Failing that, you can let your Auckland-dwelling friends know about this. It can't hurt. And if you don't fancy the idea of making yourself an angel, you've clearly never seen Christopher Walken all Christopher Walken it up in the Prophecy movies.
Take care, all
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