Activism or Slack-tivism?

I'm probably going to piss a lot of people off with this post. And as Beyonce would say: "I ain't sorry"

Let me start with this - Just being educated about diseases isn't enough to make people healthier. Social media activism may "raise awareness" but there are few (if any) legitimate actions associated with sitting behind your computer and "sharing" a post.

A few years ago women were updating their status update with a color - nothing other than a color. Why? Apparently to raise awareness about breast cancer. How? I have no freaking clue. Last year, people were trying to show-up one another by posting increasingly obnoxious ways to get dunked by ice water - to raise awareness about ALS. This year, I have seen a horrifying trend of women posting photos of the underwear they are wearing to apparently "raise awareness about women's genital health". (Don't do a google image search of that one - EWW). And most recently, I have been challenged to do 22 push ups for 22 days to raise awareness about veteran suicide and PTSD.

These are just a few examples of the phenomenon of "raising awareness" for diseases. People continue to "raise awareness" of different health issues online without following this up with actions. What does awareness mean anyway, and what is supposed to come of people sharing photos, videos or bra colours? To me, these things feel very reminiscent of the 1990's chain letter phenomenon where you were threatened with years of bad luck if you didn't share the message with all your friends. Of all the recent "awareness campaigns" that I have seen, at least the ALS ice-bucket challenge involved donating money to fund ALS research. But that aside, everything else feels like a social media chain letter. "Share this if you care about _______".

To date, I have not participated in any of these social media challenges and I do not plan to. Why? Because I invest my time in energy in volunteering with the associations that I am a member of and donate funds to charities that are meaningful to me.

The 22 days of 22 push ups really bothers me. I'm not saying that the incidence of mental health issues among members of the Canadian Forces should be ignored. In fact, this is a very concerning issue that requires more resources and funding devoted to it. But sharing videos of myself doing push ups isn't going to change policy and it's certainly not going to make my veteran spouse feel like I care. In fact, my spouse is sick of being judged as being broken and damaged because of being a member of the CF but that's another issue entirely.  

There is nothing wrong with awareness - but it would be more beneficial if social media awareness campaigns were followed up with real actions. Awareness may be a first step towards changing behaviour but just being educated about diseases isn't enough to make people healthier. Perhaps "sharing" things online makes people feel like they are helping. But if this generation of social media warriors tried donating time, energy and/or funds to these issues, maybe actions would do more for these causes than just raising awareness.

So forgive me for not going online and saying: "Hey motherfuckers, look at what I'm doing"!! while posting the color of my bra, a photo of my underwear or videos of myself getting dunked with a bucket of water or doing push ups. I'll stick to continuing with the actions that I currently engage in to try and influence what I can.