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A pandemic of plastic fingers tap hastily away at screens, programmed to follow the trends of whatever topic has peaked the world’s interest that day. Their actions are almost robotic, with minds seemingly hollow of any free will. A category of people who work in static and predictable ways, sheeps who follow the shepherd. A simple mantra courses through their mind, subconsciously or not.
See.
Click.
Post.
Repeat.
Whether this can even be considered a negative in today’s society, is irrelevant for right now. What matters the most is the fact that it is the status quo. It is a constant virus that hitchhikes its way through the landscape of the modern world. Sharing media has never been so easy, but with each piece that gets sent to the world, the less the emotions behind it become.
The concept of trends to me is honestly incredible, the way that any small 5-second clip can be blasted all over media overnight, how it reflects in real life with the way we speak and act, how a career can be launched in quick succession, how genocide can be reduced down into an AI-generated story repost.
The power and strength of advocacy and activism have heightened extraordinarily with the rise of social media and technology. It amplifies voices that would otherwise be unseen, it spreads news and information at a rate never known before, and individuals have the ability to share personal stories and experiences that would be left unheard of by mainstream news networks.
Social media has accelerated activism to heights that were otherwise unreachable. The more people fight for change, the greater the numbers that rally behind them are. However, the issue with this is that there is no way to tell if those who gather in these groups are truly for the cause, or if they are simply just following a trend.
What they are partaking in is called performative activism.
Performative activism is essentially an oxymoron, a porcelain mask over a warted face, a hoax. It is the act of ‘fighting’ for a cause for your own personal benefit.
To some, this may seem like a beneficial factor to the overarching picture of activism. It results in larger numbers, more voices, greater sound. However, it could not be further from the case.
The decibel of the voices is not what matters, but rather what they say.
Take for instance, companies plastering pride flags over their logos, an incredible positive for the LGBTQ+ community, showing how the movement has grown substantially than before, yet so many of these companies contribute a significant portion of their revenue to legislators who actively combat LGBTQ policies. They feign this support for the community in order to gain money.
In 2020 with the awakening of the BLM movement, people would post black images for Blackout Tuesday to signify their support, however many would only do so in order to maintain their reputation with others. Influencers and celebrities uphold a facade in order to not taint their image, doing what is ‘necessary’ to uphold a name, without truly understanding the tragedy behind it.
The fact that spending two seconds to repost a poorly AI-generated image of crumbling buildings, smoke-filled skies, and big white letters stating ALL EYES ON RAFAH can be considered ‘making a difference’ is a dystopian way to think about society.
Activism once involved campaigning for a change, being passionate and standing for what you believe in. It was understanding the values and differences that brought about the conflict in the first place, but now it couldn’t be considered furthest from it.
In no way shape or form am I denying all activism spread through social media - in fact I stand for it to be used in ways that can benefit marginalised voices, but I draw the line at when a real crisis is turned into a microtrend.
Although the numbers speak for themselves, with more people than ever before contributing to a cause that truly matters- however,
are they really even contributing to the cause?
Empty messages and false signs of support would matter so much more if the people behind them truly meant what they said.
While I understand that many are unable to contribute with any greater magnitude, however, the alternative should not be to turn thousands of lives lost into an image that others will simply skip past.
Although those who repost these images of Rafah on their Instagram stories mostly mean well, they are performative in the sense that they often do not search to educate themselves further, and only associate themselves with this genocide in order to fit into society.
Performative activism is simply just that, a performance. It results in the masses being paraded around like puppets, an eternal game of following the leader. If someone truly wishes to show their support and fight for a cause, then do not do so just because everyone else is, or because you don’t want to taint your image.
Do so because you care.
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