Like a flock of seagulls going after food, a horde of canvassers turned to me and started waving and walking in my direction as I arrived onto Astor Place. Their bright-colored parkas are like warning signs to pedestrians, their clipboards and pamphlets in hand, a provoking question at the ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you care about animals?\u201d they asked. \u201cDo you care about the environment?\u201d they pleaded. \u201cDo you care about anything?\u201d I thought to myself. Of course I do, I thought as if I was trying to convince myself.<\/p>\n
As they advanced closer, I turned up the volume of my music, held myself straight, and maintained my speed – not willing to stop for them. What would I say to them? What can I offer them? Can they tell I don’t know what I’m talking about? The woman with the vivid orange jacket asked another question to which I answered \u201cNo, thank you,\u201d and briskly continued on my way to a class about philosophy and ethics, ironically. As I walked away, I whispered apologies to the canvasser as the guilt bubbled up inside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t you ever contribute?\u201d I usually ask myself. Because I\u2019m a slacker. Even in the age of Trump, when so many people march against him and call their Congressional representatives to support rights, I do not get off my ass to take concrete action because I do not think my actions are worthwhile. I hide behind my screen, obsessively read everything on the New York Times\u2019 front page and whatever my friends share on Facebook.<\/p>\n
I believe in ideas, but maybe I don’t believe in them enough to go out and do something about them. Maybe it\u2019s too much effort and maybe I just give up too easily. I cross the street and avoid eye contact with any canvasser I see from a block away, or pretend to be on the phone when they start catching up to me. The extent of my contributions to any cause include \u2013 and are limited to \u2013 signing online petitions, recycling when I feel like it, and sharing the occasional article on Facebook. I\u2019m afraid to participate because I don\u2019t really know how I can make a difference. At the same time, I\u2019m insecure about falling into the trap of being a slacktivist, tricking myself into believing I am making a difference, knowing fully that I am not.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not a slacktivist!\u201d exclaimed my friend, Akash. Looking for support from a peer, I confided in him my guilt for not marching in the Women\u2019s March or other protests against the Trump administration<\/p>\n
We argued about our perceptions of slacktivism and activism in today\u2019s day and age. \u201cI just think that slacktivism today is not \u2018apathetic,\u2019 rather \u2018Look at me care about this!\u2019\u201d It reminded him of virtue signaling, or something egotistical like volunteer tourism. \u201cIt only makes the person doing it feel better about themselves,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not who you are, I know you care!\u201d he said to comfort me. \u201cIt\u2019s just that you\u2019re finding out how best to contribute.\u201d That was reassuring, in a way.<\/p>\n
Akash is more politically engaged than I am \u2013 professionally, personally, socially, but sometimes faces criticism. \u201cI think an activist today is someone who is on the street, protesting, marching,\u201d he said. \u201cActivists would see themselves in the more traditional \u2018activist\u2019 role which is what you think of in the civil rights or independence movements.\u201d<\/p>\n
His ways of contributing \u2013 working in government, in media, in creating debates for the campus community \u2013 is political engagement in a different light. Yet as the president of the Review & Debates at NYU, he had been told that all their closed room debates do is add more to the \u201cintellectual masturbation\u201d in their ivory towers.<\/p>\n
Even if the groups that engage in activism or slacktivism sometimes do not intersect and might even look down on each other, their different ways of solving problems and different approaches and focuses don\u2019t make any of them better than the other. Ultimately, what connects us is this sense of drive, to make a change, to help people and make things better.<\/p>\n
We beat ourselves over the fact that we can\u2019t help or care about everything. But if we have drive, that\u2019s already a step. The word activist is glorified and lionized into this figure, according to Akash, it\u2019s just a lot of ego. \u201cI\u2019m just an active citizen, I\u2019ve taken active interest in reading and understanding what\u2019s going on and I discuss and debate,\u201d he asserted. For him, that\u2019s already a lot.<\/p>\n
George Bernard Shaw said that \u201cThe reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe core tenets are caring about what\u2019s going on, being willing to fight for what you believe in, in the streets, in debates, in conversation, and not looking down on people for doing the things the other way that things are supposed to be,\u201d Akash added.<\/p>\n
Social media plays a role in public discussion that cannot be overlooked. Examples from over the years show that people\u2019s actions online contribute to a wider discussion. The Black Lives Matter movement stemmed from a hashtag in 2013 into a full grown coherent movement with a huge following. The Women\u2019s March in January 2017 (and this year\u2019s, too) was also organized essentially online.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, political posts on social media were vilified for their inability to affect real change,\u201d Jonathan Moyer, writer for Better Life Lab and staff member of the 2016 Clinton Campaign, wrote in an 2017 article for New America. \u201cBut successful popular movements show a different reality. When people feel that they have a legitimate grievance to redress, they will go to great lengths to make it known.\u201d<\/p>\n
When our discussion returned to slacktivism, Akash added he didn\u2019t think it was all bad. \u201cIn today\u2019s world, a lot of credence, of support, is given to people for just liking things (on social media), because it shows that coalitions are being built and ideas are being supported,\u201d he explained.The line delineating the effectiveness of slacktivism is all the more blurred since online content is so easily accessible by your friends. \u201cI read my friends\u2019 ideas and I think about them, and I talk to them if I want to clarify or push back on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When I relayed my frustration towards canvassers, Akash was also critical. \u201c[They are] People who pester me on the street, saying \u2018sign this, sign that,\u2019 when I know most of it just ends up in this vortex of change.org petitions and doesn\u2019t lead to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
In light of this, he doesn\u2019t think that marching is as effective as it appears to be. How does your attendance to a march concretely matter? \u201cIt only adds to the graph\u2026 But if you are retweeting something, if you are sharing something, if you are making something trend [on Twitter], doesn\u2019t that have the same effect?\u201d These are all ways to engage in public discussion, to reinforce a sense of presence in civil society and in the political sphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to hell with slacktivism and this guilt! If you know you care, no one should have to tell you otherwise,\u201d Akash resolved. In the true manner of a professional debater, his closing statements truly closed the topic: \u201cWhat unites us is this sense of duty whether it is patriotism or just compassion, and caring about creating a better age for tomorrow.\u201d Case tabled, next topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like a flock of seagulls going after food, a horde of canvassers turned to me and started waving and walking in my direction as I arrived onto Astor Place. Their bright-colored parkas are like warning signs to pedestrians, their clipboards and pamphlets in hand, a provoking question at the ready. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n