Hashtag Activism

I was intrigued to notice lots of selfie-posting participants from my Instagram and Facebook list, all of whom I would not necessary have expected to participate in something called a black and white selfie challenge. 

The hashtag # womensupportingwomen monochrome selfie campaign does not have to be worthless. But I really think that the hashtag does not help these oppressed women around the world. I think that Instagram and Facebook new empowerment trends are meaningless. 

Don't get me wrong! I am all about women supporting women, but I am a little bit cynical about this social media black and white selfie challenge.

According to me, self-portrait masquerading as activism or empowerment is meaningless. It makes the person feel like he or she has accomplished something, and it allows them to bask in self-satisfaction and win virtual approval. 

Of course, people have the right to post what they wish on their own platforms. But how does a monochrome image of oneself, not of the woman you want to elevate, champion empowerment?

I am not against digital activism. History shows how marginalized groups, long excluded from elite media spaces, have used hashtags to advance counternarratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent. But Internet cannot do everything. Social media allows us to know about these cases in ways that afford teachers some modicum of support from a community that is broader than their own institution. Indeed hashtags give voice to diverse experiences and many people say that social medias are all they have to build solidarity around threatening experiences. 

But I think that online organizing is not enough by itself to effect real social change. 

The new Instagram challenge of posting black and white photographs of themselves was originally meant to raise awareness on the high rates of femicide in Turkey. But I challenge everyone who has posted a black and white photo to post a screenshot of the organization or charity they have donated to that actually supports women! 

I am just saying, as a teacher, that it is the time for a real reflection. Now is not the time to be silent, neither is it the time to jump on a bandwagon. It is the time for deep reflection and care. 

Evgeny Morozov is also sceptical of the motives, and power of digital activism. "My hunch is that people often affiliate with causes online for selfish and narcissistic purposes." Indeed hashtags come and go and are no match for real world activism engagement. The researchers such as Evgeny Morozov (2009) have long been pre-occupied with the understanding why the Internet does not permit development of the coherent social movements or collective action. 

Moreover, the journalist and blogger Morozov (2010) points out that digital technology provides new methods of control, surveillance, and persecution for repressive governments. Governments can block access to content and track the online actions of citizens. Following this logic, digital technology may endanger activists more than it helps them. 

I totally understand that the hashtags are intended to encourage individuals with similar experiences and to let them know that they are not alone. They are using the digital to make visible the global scarce of gender oppression and to link protest movements across national borders. Unfortunately, ideological fluffiness on the part of people with huge online followings can be deleterious to more substantive activism. 

But hashtag activism must not let us forget about activism in the real world. 

When we repost a hashtag or an awareness video, we should keep the same energy for real actions in real life. Our activism online is not the work; it is just a tool for the real work. 

Let us be aware of slacktivism. Slacktivism combines the words 'slacker' and 'activism' to create an epithet that suggests that online political actions that require little time or commitment often act to supplant, rather than supplement, physical, real world activism. (Allsop, 2016). 

Digital movements are no match for real world engagement. The realities of face-to-face contact and in-person mass protests, the tools of centuries of struggle for full rights, have become even more essential to grounding us as we navigate through a new era of humans' relationship with technology. 

I have taught my human rights youth group to examine implicit and overt form of bias and discrimination and I have provided my students with the structure, opportunity and tools to do something about the injustice they see in the world. 

My task is to transform students' feelings of anger, sadness and hopelessness into concrete actions that can make the world more equitable. 

Every week, I encourage my students during our meetings to think of ways they can teach their classmates, younger students and adults in their lives about important social issues. This can include school assemblies, community forums, teach-ins, peer-to-peer programs and social media forums. I include many opportunities to share the information in interesting ways: written, art, theatre. We have written letters to legislators and we have examined the extent to which legislation impacted injustice. 

Demonstration and protests can be uplifting and empowering and can help students feel like they are part of a larger movement. They can create posters, prepare songs or chants and practice symbolism that conveys their thoughts and feelings. 

We have created our own surveys. We have used paper surveys in order to gain insight into how other students in their school or the larger community feel about an issue. 

We have raised money and this activity has shown my students that raising money is a concrete way to contribute to community or national efforts to address injustice. They can raise money by selling items, auctions, entertainment, sponsoring events and more. 

Indeed, both volunteering and social activism are important strategies for fostering people's participation in social change and human development. By participating in both, volunteering and social activism, students can be empowered with the confidence, skills and knowledge necessary to effect change in their world. 

Student activists are attuned to multiple aspects of social justice and it is important to widen their views in a classroom in order to take overlapping positions into account.

Activism involves advocacy. To be an activist is to be a mover and galvanizer of a particular cause that one thinks ought to form a permanent landscape of an ideal society. Advocacy is the act of translating private problems into social issues. An activist must possess a deep-rooted sense of empathy. He or she must be involved in society; to partake in the joy and suffering of ordinary lives; to listen, to respect and to be actively involved in society. 

Last but not least, activism must be guided by a moral vision that is embedded with a deep concern for fellow humans. Without a moral vision, activism can easily be politicized and serve group or individual interests that no longer put the community or society as its ultimate concern.