Simply standing for a cause you know nothing about is not the same as activism and social media sites are fundamental grounds for ignorant bystanders to get involved. I know I do not stand alone when I say, social media involvement is simply the easy way out. It is seemingly the best substitute for actually taking action. Granted that by posting a video of yourself performing the Ice Bucket Challenge you may contribute to the overall popularity of the trend and in turn increase the amount of money donated toward finding a cure, but you are not truly behaving as an activist. The same is true for people who were swept up in the fad of changing their profile picture to an equal sign to support marriage equality. Yes, it was a movement, but it was not nearly as powerful as live demonstrations would have been, or if everyone who changed their picture had written a strongly worded letter to their local lawmaker.
In Malcolm Gladwell's essay "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted," he compares and contrasts militancy taking place on social media to the protestors of the Civil Rights Movement. Gladwell explains the protests of African Americans in the 1960s and the enormous change that came along with the acts of one person all without "the powers of social media." He recounts the story of a series of sit-ins starting in Greensboro, North Carolina. The protest started with four determined students, and by word of mouth, news of the protest spread so far that within a week a similar protest sprang up some fifty miles away. Gladwell mentions modern protest fueled by social media outlets, such as a protest in Tehran in 2009, and praises social media for enabling these people to come together. .
Many people feel as though they have fulfilled their societal obligation just through social media activism, and they are content to remain behind a computer screen, rather than staging a traditional sit in.
