Remember when everyone was putting a French flag overlay on their Facebook posts to show their support for France after the terrorist attacks?

Remember when everyone was adding their comments to the hashtag #IStandWithParkland?

Remember any number of terrible events around the world and the thoughts and prayers that came tumbling in from every hidden corner of the internet?

It’s even become a joke now. ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ are pretty widely regarded as three words which essentially mean nothing, but give the person writing them a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

I’m not saying those people are necessarily bad, just that these kinds of empty platitudes are symptomatic of the constantly connected online world we live in.

Did the clapping for healthcare workers start as a noble act? Or was it always the vanity project of celebrities and social media influencers?

Do the people standing outside clapping for the faceless, nameless essential workers feel as though they are genuinely contributing to something or is it just the latest iteration of slacktivism?

What exactly is slacktivism?

Well, according to Wikipedia:

Slacktivism (slactivism or slackervism, a portmanteau of slacker and activism) is a pejorative term for “feel-good” measures in support of an issue or social cause. Slacktivism is showing support for a cause with the main purpose of boosting the egos of participants in the movement. The action may have little effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfied that they have contributed. Slacktivism is often a form of virtue signaling. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low-cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them, although this assumption has been criticized.[1]

What’s the issue with it?

The main criticism of Slacktivism focuses on the tangibility of results, or lack thereof, that come from such actions.

Very rarely does Slacktivism result in anything other than a final note for news organisations looking for a feel-good story to wrap-up their nightly coverage. In general, the craze will go viral, ramp up with the aid of social media and meme potential, and eventually die off to become a footnote in a review of the year.

Occasionally these types of viral movements can produce positive results, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, which is said to have contributed more than $115 million for the ALS Association. An impressive number and a great cause. But that challenge had a very specific point to make, and a call to action that led participants to a concrete process for contributing.

Lately, it seems as though Slacktivism has devolved to initiating the first stage of social media-driven activism, only to stall there and never quite go any further.

Raise awareness for a cause Develop a tangible way people can help (this is where the stall occurs) Turn the awareness into action

Raising awareness of a cause is great. Especially when that cause flies under the radar. And especially when the activism comes from a place of authenticity.

But when the awareness of a cause is already high and the activism comes from a place of vanity? Well, that’s just an exercise in ego.

What can I do instead?

Some people reading this will feel attacked for doing what they feel they can in the current situation.

“What else are we supposed to do?” they will ask. “When we are in lockdown, unable to leave our homes, unable to be within 1.5 metres of other people, unable to gather as a group, what else can we do to show support for our frontline workers?”

I don’t know. Maybe quietly donate some money to a local homeless shelter?

Maybe adopt one of the thousands of animals being given up?

Maybe set up a monthly contribution to a healthcare organisation?

And maybe — and I know this will be difficult for some people — maybe don’t film it for Facebook or Instagram likes?

Maybe people just need to start doing things without the promise of validation from the internet. It’s not like this is a new concept, it’s pretty much the same as these words from the ‘thoughts and prayers’ crowd’s favourite thinker.

Matthew 6:1

1 “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 So when you give to the needy, don’t announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full!

3 But when you give to the needy, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

And for those who don’t particularly care what Jesus had to say about anything, perhaps the following quote often attributed to the Ancient Greek philosophers will strike more of a chord.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”

Anyway, I’m off to film myself clapping for teachers.