Hey Raena: Hey Raena - Green Avatars for Iran: An Exercise in Slacktivism
Sabrestyle
· 6 months ago
I now need a slacktivism badge on my Twitter avatar! [rushes off]
DrCris
· 6 months ago
Niice. I was wondering how much anyone who can make a difference cares that some random people there have a green avatar. I always had enough trouble believing that Amnesty made a difference, except now I can imagine the irritation of bagsful of mail landing on your desk.
Stephen Michael Kellat
· 6 months ago
One of my network's producers would give you an "amen" on this one. I agree with much of what you say, too.
miss kittyfantastico
· 6 months ago
It is, on one hand, an easy way for people to say, "OMG LOOK I AM MARGINALLY AWARE OF THE WORLD!" However, advertising why I'm doing it isn't any better than complaining about why others are doing it. It's very, very personal to me and it made a difference to the once person who needed it to make a difference. Plus, my baby photo looks sexy covered in mint jelly.
Raena
· 6 months ago
If it's made a genuine difference to someone you know, then awesome sauce; and if it makes a deep difference to you, double sauce.
I'll punt on you being in quite a small minority, though.
dragonfly
· 6 months ago
I'm skeptical about what it does other than solidarity/providing more numbers for the talking heads to wax lyrical about "the twitter revolution". Good publicity for twitter though......and
Leah Cross
· 6 months ago
The green hue is like those charity wristbands that were popular a few years ago, by wearing them, you weren't changing the world, or making poverty history, but what you were doing, is showing that you care, showing your support for the cause.
I would agree, that most of twitter would like to think that by changing their avatar to lime that they've played an important part in the revolution, but realistically, we all know that's not true.
When you're on the other side of the world and you want to show your support, the green hue is the easy option, the other being, boarding a plane and fighting alongside the Iranians, and if we can't be bothered to even colour the avatars ourselves, I can't see that's very likely.
Raena
· 6 months ago
I really don't agree that your *only* two options are to colour an icon and fly to Iran to chuck bottles at the Government.
Is it really so hard to muster up the words to have an original thought of our own? Surely that shows more evidence of our passion, interest, support, and concern than chucking our avatars at a webapp?
someToast
· 6 months ago
It reminds me of this cartoon on "Levels of Commitment" from '04, when ribbon magnets were all the rage.
Interesting and thoughtful, but I totally disagree. If people feel better about themselves for doing an arguably meaningless act (which seems to be what you’re getting at), there is no harm- some good might even happen as a result.
Simple acts like this spread awareness. Would you criticize (I realize that probably isn’t the right word) people for putting up yellow ribbons for lost soldiers? What does wearing a pink shirt and walking for three days actually do? The money might have a direct impact but I would not agree that the walking serves no purpose and doesn’t “help”. A moment of silence? The reading of an Amber Alert sign?
If we had twitter and facebook in 1994 perhaps 60 million profiles shaded red might have raised awareness and encouraged decisive actions against the Rwandan genocide. Maybe not.
For me, the chance that through the constant scrolling of twitter updates around the world that my profile is viewed by someone directly affected in Iran, outweighs any negative thoughts of me not really doing anything.
I’ve had people ask me why my profile is shaded green. That alone tells me it truly is serving a purpose. I’m rarely asked what I think about democracy in Iran.
You call it slacktivism. I call it a voice, a part of a louder voice, and that is really what democracy is all about! Good talk!
All Comments
I'll punt on you being in quite a small minority, though.
I would agree, that most of twitter would like to think that by changing their avatar to lime that they've played an important part in the revolution, but realistically, we all know that's not true.
When you're on the other side of the world and you want to show your support, the green hue is the easy option, the other being, boarding a plane and fighting alongside the Iranians, and if we can't be bothered to even colour the avatars ourselves, I can't see that's very likely.
Is it really so hard to muster up the words to have an original thought of our own? Surely that shows more evidence of our passion, interest, support, and concern than chucking our avatars at a webapp?
http://allsmall.net/as753.htm
Simple acts like this spread awareness. Would you criticize (I realize that probably isn’t the right word) people for putting up yellow ribbons for lost soldiers? What does wearing a pink shirt and walking for three days actually do? The money might have a direct impact but I would not agree that the walking serves no purpose and doesn’t “help”. A moment of silence? The reading of an Amber Alert sign?
If we had twitter and facebook in 1994 perhaps 60 million profiles shaded red might have raised awareness and encouraged decisive actions against the Rwandan genocide. Maybe not.
For me, the chance that through the constant scrolling of twitter updates around the world that my profile is viewed by someone directly affected in Iran, outweighs any negative thoughts of me not really doing anything.
I’ve had people ask me why my profile is shaded green. That alone tells me it truly is serving a purpose. I’m rarely asked what I think about democracy in Iran.
You call it slacktivism. I call it a voice, a part of a louder voice, and that is really what democracy is all about!
Good talk!