Social Network Activism Effectiveness

I have interacted a bit with social network activism in my life, and I believe this is an entirely different system than that of traditional political movements. In the modern era of widespread Internet access, it is easy to sit in the comfort of your home and support a cause by donating money with the click of a button. These new technologies make becoming an activist extremely easy, or so it seems. Interacting in social network activism doesn’t guarantee that anything is getting done, because it is rare for one to see the effects that one’s click to support a cause has on the overall movement. This reason causes for some debate on the effectiveness of social network activism on whether it is as effective as traditional political movement strategies.

            I have participated in a few social networking activism campaigns. Two significant ones that I have participated in and have been widely covered in the media are those of the New Orleans population post Hurricane Katrina, and that of the Haiti population after the devastating earthquake that took place. Both of these groups have Facebook affiliations to raise awareness for support and to gain money in order to help with the relief. I contributed money to both of these organizations and am associated with their groups on Facebook, but that is pretty much the furthest extent in which I have interacted with these campaigns. I have kept up on articles about the development in both of these places because I am still intrigued and interested in the progress, but I have done nothing further to involve myself with the relief. It might be because there is such a convenience aspect to social networking activism these days that deter people for attempting to gather people to become members of actual social activism, because they believe the population is too lazy to participate and strive for the betterment of humanity though social enactments. Looking at the effects of social networking activism from this angle may cause one to view the evolution of activism to be taking steps backwards.