Week 13 - Nish cont. #Challenge Accepted

As far as #ChallengeAccepted I honestly think now after reading this that activism simply exists on a spectrum especially as it integrates with the digital world. From what I understand, people are frowning upon this type of activism because the stakes are minimal and do very little past collecting people under a hashtag. And if I’m honest I do think that there is a bit of truth to this but I do think there are people who are well meaning when they do get involved in these types of challenges. The less visible critiques are also very valid, and I think they call for users to be a bit more critical in their engagement which I do not think is too much to ask. But for those who do participate I do not think they deserve extreme scrutiny if their participation was innocuous. Some of the invisible critiques as articulated by nish were, “the goal or outcome of the campaign; critiques the tactic, and the medium to low commitment involved.” I think these critiques highlight why people began to characterize the challenge as slacktivist activity in the first place, since there is more perceived self promotion involved in these posts rather than activism.

That makes me question whether challenges like these should even be considered activism, quelling the whole slacktivist dialogue. They do seem more like feel-good content, and I think that is okay so long as it is positive. And I think as a contrarian in this scenario I do not think they are noble for engaging in this challenge, because it is missing a real sense of opposition, this stance is not very charged in my opinion. So again I do not think these women are worthy of the slacktivist title, and think there needs to be more questions raised on whether or not these women actually view themselves as activists were they recognized as activists for their engagement and then demeaned for it.