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Originally Posted by KSig RC
The issue isn't "spreading yourself too thin" - people who put in actual effort anywhere are awesome, and it's incredible they give their limited time and resources to the greater good.
The issue is people who click a Facebook link instead of doing something 'for real' because that satisfies their own personal desire to be a good person (or look like a good person). Lazy people have an escape hatch that really didn't exist before.
Of course, these people may have 9 kids and have absolutely zero time - in that case, of course a petition or similar might be all they can pitch in. That's fine. It just looks suspiciously like cause-jumping to say "I AM A GOOD PERSON, I AM A PART OF THIS" for so many people. It looks like clicking a link to impress friends and neighbors, or to create an image. I reserve the right to judge these people as assholes, even though that makes me an asshole in turn. I'm fine with that.
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I'm an asshole too, but I've been quite lucky that my facebook feed has been intelligent and thoughtful commentary on how the law works and explaining the outcome or on how victims/children are handled and looked upon by the media and the public. There's also been offshoots about matricide and how people view it in frames of gender and society. I know those people are letter writers, researchers who publish, serve on boards, do probono work, and so on, and if it ends up on facebook it doesn't get to that point, thank God.
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Originally Posted by Optimus Prime
The point is clicking on a facebook page (in this certain situation and case) is downright lazy. You can't really use yourself as an example because you are obviously trying to make a difference. Online petitions, cutting porch lights on, and changing profile pictures to Caylee is not going to do a damn thing to change or help anyone's community. No matter the situation, most people can donate an hour of their time a week to volunteer somewhere in someway. I doubt many of these people that are so angered by all of this will step away from their computer screens to actually get out in their communities and put forth a real effort.
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Hell they could set up their internet searching with Good Search and every time they need something it contributes to a charity.
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Originally Posted by sigmadiva
You are right. But in *their* minds they are doing sooooooo much!!!!!!
These are people who are probably so self obsessed that for them to give the smallest amount of their attention to any cause, they'll see as a "real commitment".
It may help only in the sense that it will bring attention to the issue. It may cause people to stop for a moment and think about what happened. And maybe in time, it will cause a few to become active.
They probably could, but they don't. See, where I think the problem is is that having to do community service is used as punishment when someone has done something bad. If community service was used in a more positive way, then the idea of volunteering time for any cause would seem reasonable.
Maybe we as GLO members understand the need and power behind donating our time because we do it as part of our membership in our orgs. For people who have never been exposed to the idea of volunteering, they don't really understand what it means and what is involved. So for them, just to click a link is like "WOW!! I did some good". They just don't know any better.
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What I wasn't as clear about is that an online petition or facebook porch light movements are less effective than say, shooting off a quick email or making a phone call to one's elected but take the same amount of time. Also a national petition isn't appropriate, but I won't knock them for their ignorance about not knowing that nuance, so if someone made their status "Hey people on Sesame Street, our representative is Guy Smiley and I just wrote to him about working on a law because of what happened to Caylee Anthony." Same thing regarding a donation to an event or charity, especially with the text donations that have cropped up after every natural disaster. "I'm upset about the Caylee Anthony case, so I made a donation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 93% of revenue goes to finding children and victim assistance and you can donate online at www.morethanafacebookslacktivist.com"
I don't care if someone wants attention or acknowledgment if they actually did something positive toward whatever cause it is at the moment and may entice others to the bandwagon. It's the attention and bandwagon with no chance of attempting or affecting real change that engages my righteous indignation. If someone doesn't have money a simple call or email to an elected official who gets paid to do those things may take a whole ten minutes, and if they have money and not time they could probably complete an online donation in five minutes.
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