After a long day, you’re scrolling on social media. A political influencer pops up, and you take about twelve seconds to listen to their take on a recent event that has caused friction in the political atmosphere—perhaps a pending bill or a social justice violation that’s been ignored by the government. In your subdued state, you think, “This is a problem! I should do something!” So, you click over to the comments section and write a profound comment, one that will surely make a massive difference in the fight to end social injustice: #Resist.
There. That’ll show ‘em.
This is an instance of a modern-day phenomenon called slacktivism. It’s characterized by visibly showing support for a cause without tangible participation [1]. Millions of people have written similar comments since the advent of social media. While it may be an easy way to show your support for a cause or for groups to track the number of people who have interacted with a post, translationally, it’s difficult to conclude that pure social media activism results in concrete change and societal progress.
Historically, people who participated in any style of tangible activism did so with the goal of garnering government attention to effect a change that protects the rights of the citizenry. The end result may be the repeal of a law, a favorable Supreme Court decision, funding for national medical research, or even a local issue, like potholes or a lack of street lighting. While political conversations are accessible from the comfort of our home sofas through social media, major issues simply cannot be resolved solely online for several reasons.
- Social media trends are transient—a trait that is accompanied by a higher likelihood to be ignored than other forms of activism. I kept track of the top 30 trending hashtags on X (formerly Twitter) for a day, and I found intense fluctuations. By the end of the day on Valentine’s day, #Valentine, the top hashtag for the majority of the day, had dropped completely off the list by 9 p.m. in favor of a wrestling hashtag. There is no guarantee that important topics stay relevant for long, and social justice movements could be forgotten by the end of the day as they get buried by new content.
- Social media is hardly indicative of the needs and wants of a constituent majority. Users on social media are more likely to be younger than 35, female, Democrat-leaning, and making more than $30,000 per year [3, 4]. For every man over 35 who leans Republican, it would not be fair to base government decisions on social media likes and comments. Additionally, fraudulent accounts make up anywhere from 5% to 30% of social media accounts [5, 6], and in 2016, 20% of political tweets about the US presidential election came from bots (automated online accounts) [7].
- Social media is easy to ignore. People, including lawmakers, scroll, unfollow, unsubscribe, silence notifications, and delete social media apps. It would be impossible for government officials to keep track of social media properly: between hashtags, posts, short videos, and comments, the volume is simply too great. On X alone, over 500 million tweets are sent per day. [2]
You may remember certain social media movements like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and while these movements involved considerable online support, the difference is that their goals were not achieved online alone. Black Lives Matter was accompanied by civilian protests across the country, with an estimated 26 million Americans participating [8]. #MeToo led to the passage of the Speak Out Act, making nondisclosure agreements inapplicable to workplace sexual harassment reports, effectively allowing victims of harassment to report what happened without fear of their contracts nullifying their testimonies [9]. This happened because organizations like Lift Our Voices worked with senators to build congressional support [10]. And thanks to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, $115 million was raised to fund ALS research and medical care [11]. These movements combined traditional methods of activism—like protests, lobbying, donations, rallies, letter-writing campaigns, and sponsorships—with modern social media activism to connect people to actions that made a real difference. Traditional methods are tried and true.
Congresspeople, both at the state and national levels, can ignore tens of thousands of comments on an influencer’s account, but they cannot ignore 500 emails from concerned citizens who oppose a land use bill. Bots can inflate views and likes on short form content, but you can’t fake a rally. Important issues can have the power to stay relevant through public donations, and voting gives elected officials a clearer and more indicative view of what constituents really want—what all of us really want.
So yes, please continue to like, comment, and post, but don’t expect that to be what causes changes to occur. If you want real change, please find real-life methods to participate in social and political movements. Social media is a great way to find rallies, get details on lobbying groups, and find petitions to sign. Rather than spending your time watching videos and leaving comments, find groups that have streamlined traditional methods of activism, like by email templates; I once wrote to a senator by using one of those email templates, and it took about the same amount of time as writing a comment, and my senator voted against the bill.
These tried and true methods can cause real change. So next time you think about #resisting, find a way to add some old-fashioned resistance too.