Week 12 Blog

In the first part of Nish, there is a lot going on. In this blog, I'm going to try and stray away from my discussion about the trend example explained early on in the chapter. For this blog, I want to talk about the 'seasoned activists' and how social media impacts activism. For activists who have been around for a long time (and I mean impacting their movement as well as other movements at multiple levels), the reading mentions that they, more than anyone, know that just putting together a decent series of activism in order to reach one goal is not what wins activism battles. This is what social media is doing, and where the term 'slacktivism' (week 10 reading) was most likely coined. Social media is about efficiency, and while efficiency is great, this Nish reading hits on the head that we still have to do everything that will make a change - not just the quick, easy actions. And while it is no debate that social media is raising awareness, and doing things that early activists couldn't, we are still missing those key elements that earlier activists were professionals with. I think it will come with time, and it will be hard for me to concur with the slacktivism term, but in being a part of the social media era, I will say that we can do a better job in stringing goals together, not just actions that lead to a goal, and then call it good for awhile.