Political Activism

Words: 991
Pages: 4

As social media aids demonstrators in informing people around the globe and organizing current causes, it can also translate into political activism from those who might not have joined otherwise. There are a variety of reasons that social media translates into political activism, such as the ease of finding and joining causes and its use for opinion expression. The ease of finding and joining causes on social media allows for greater political activism. It is very simple to search a cause, or find one in the trending topics to support. From there, information, such as how to support the organization, is widely available to any user to find with the click of a button. Twitter has a hash tag for any cause that a user might find. This allows users to join who might never have heard of the cause otherwise. Had they heard, they still might not have joined anyway due to the lengths they would have to go to in order to find the information they needed. Social media contains all of this information in a single source, making it incredibly …show more content…
It also provides people a means to do their good deed, feel satisfied by their actions, and move on. These good deeds can be donating a small amount to a cause, sharing a link on a Facebook newsfeed, or simply clicking a “like” button. With that small gesture, people feel as if they have contributed greatly to a cause, thus never getting truly and deeply involved in the movement. Some may see these actions as laziness, just doing the minimum necessary to help, without ever giving their time to help the cause. After all, money alone will not solve all problems. It also takes the time of the volunteers committing their time to the cause. However, laziness is not the only aspect to blame in “slacktivism”. It may also be caused by the ease of sharing on social media, in which people are constantly bombarded with causes that need their