As the old West African proverb goes “we have not inherited this land from our forbearers; we have borrowed it from our children.” This wise saying exemplifies the essence of people focusing more on making the world a better place, if nothing else, for the sake of generations to come. Incidenta...
As the old West African proverb goes “we have not inherited this land from our
forbearers; we have borrowed it from our children.” This wise saying exemplifies the essence of
people focusing more on making the world a better place, if nothing else, for the sake of
generations to come. Incidentally, the world is now waking up to the scenario of heightened
social interaction powered by breakthrough in technology that has seen the emergence of social
media platforms. On these platforms are classes of people identified as slacktivists who basically
contribute to various issues by either sharing information already available to the users; they do
this by hitting the ‘like’ or ‘share’ buttons or by retweeting posts. While slacktivism has
benefitted the society through connectivity and meaningful engagement, it has also become a
platform for distortion of information and the creation of false consciousness, which reiterates
the need for people to be more circumspect in what they do behind a computer desk. It is
therefore important that as we progress as a human species so does our understanding of various
dynamics of communication.
By definition, slacktivists are people who use the façade of being resourceful members of
a certain group to make it appear that they have meaningful contributions to the larger agenda.
As Epictetus once said, “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as
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we speak”. These words epitomize the need for people to be more circumspect in diseminating
what they hear, read, or come across casually. Coined from the words ‘slacker’ and activism,
slacktivism refers to the idea of creating a buzz in the name of activism. Presently this has been a
household trend, especially because of the availability of numerous media platforms through
which slacktivists are actively involved. It is now that much easy for internet users to spread tons
of information on popular media outlets available online. Scholars explain that slacktivism
basically entails joining cause-related networking online, sharing information one come across in
numerous websites, and participating in group connectivity for highlighted causes. Some of the
information thus shared is helpful in certain ways like through the creation of civic awareness.
For instance, a joint survey conducted by Ogilvy Worldwide and Georgetown University
indicates that people who pertake in slacktivism are likely to have more meaningful impact in
charitable causes compared to actual ambassadors of the cause (Schlumpf 596). On the other
hand, psychologist expound that most slacktivists are engaged mostly for participant gratification
other than commitment or devotion to the cause in question. Such participation defeats the
essence of activism and has no productivity as it appertains to promoting the cause. The lack of
actual devotion has, in turn, undermined the need for noble activism through passive
participation of slacktivists.
In the current landscape of global interaction, the World Wide Web has significantly
eased the spread of information amongst users through popular social media sites. This
phenomenon has, in turn, created a network of slackers who primarily lurk on these platforms to
perpetuate information through sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter. Considering that most
social media users are usually idle, nobody really takes the time to verify the source of the
information they are getting or the reliability of the facts thus presented. Slacktivism has
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