Clicktivism In Social Media

As stated by Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the message” as it is the medium that constructs the foundations and limitations of the amount of human association and action. Within our new technological era, the platform of the Internet and social media allows for instant and widespread communication, increasing the amount of interpersonal exchange and therefore the possibility of a response. The Internet was a revolutionary medium allowing for knowledge, information and awareness to spread at a previously inconceivable rate. However with the innovations of social media, a new superficial aspect to our image was also created. The conglomerate of these is what established the theme for our poster essay: click activism.

The first poster introduces this concept, also referred to as clicktivism, of an Internet phenomenon where users reduce their deeds of activism to single mouse clicks on social media through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. Co-creator of the Occupy Wall street movement Micah White described clicktivism as “Political engagement becoming a matter of clicking a few links. In promoting the illusion that surfing the web can change the world, clicktivism is to activism as McDonalds is to a slow-cooked meal. It may look like food, but the life-giving nutrients are long gone.” We have demonstrated this through amalgamating two iconic images. The Facebook ‘like’ fist has been superimposed over the revolution fist also known as the raised or clenched fist, a symbol of solidarity, defiance, resistance and strength. The fist is an iconic symbol, representing activism since the early 20th century and has previously been manipulated to represent a multitude of causes. When considering the technological determinist theory the progression of...

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...ly, Ugandans, the apparent victims of the campaign, were not privy to this social media craze due to their isolation from the internet and online community. Being a more archaic society, most did not have access to the video until the not-for-profit African Youth Initiative Network held a screening. The viewing culminated in rocks being thrown at the screen, the acrimonious and impassioned Ugandans quoted as saying “If people in those countries’ care about us, they will not wear t-shirts with pictures of Joseph Kony for any reason. That would celebrate our suffering.” This is represented in the posted image by the iconic and metonymic ‘loading’ symbol next to Uganda on the world map. To Internet users the sign denotes waiting for a page or video load, however in this context the connotations are that the revolution never reached Uganada and they are still waiting.