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SLACKTIVISM VS. ACTIVISM

Podcasts are confusing yet interesting.  

Now that I have created my very first podcast, I realise that this form of media gives creators a massive platform to convey their thoughts, opinions and feelings in a creative way for others to consume.

My podcast I created focused on the topic of activists vs. slacktivists, particularly the slacktivist side of the situation and how ineffective and thoughtless people can be when they are put in a situation they are passionate about yet…

People often believe they are activists when the harsh reality is that they are actually slacktivists due to the fact they are ineffective in the way they go about the situation as a whole.

I decided to adopt the strategy of discussing extremely recent events within social media that has caught the attention of millions around the globe, particularly the youth. The use of the example of the James Charles and Tati Westbrook incidence is one that will easily catch the attention of my target audience, which is the youth of today.

SPEAK EVEN IF YOUR VOICE SHAKES

Social media is such a prevalent platform nowadays, particularly in the younger generations, so referencing this situation as slacktivism will not only draw the audience in to want to keep listening, yet also educate about the infectiveness and the dangers of these negative responses to situations.

Being an avid user of social media myself, particularly when it comes to YouTube and Twitter, I had been following the issue at hand that I used as my example in the podcast. I  was getting the notifications in real time as the many exchanges came to air, so I gained my knowledge from first hand interactions within the situation itself.

Many of my friends were participating with the situation also by sharing their views on the topic whether that be siding with Tati or with James, with some even participating in the slacktivism….

I used the journal article written by Cabrera, Matias and Montoya in 2017 to help aid my discussion by using correct information and terminology about slacktivism to assist in the develop of my argument by using a credible source. This source assisted in explaining exactly what slacktivism is and also give a brief description of why it doesn’t help the matter at hand.

Share your passions with the world, don’t be afraid

I used upbeat royalty free music which were licenced through Creative Commons as the intro and outro to my podcast as I did not want to use gloomy music to talk about a gloomy and unfortunate topic.

I wanted to ensure the audience was drawn into hanging around and giving me five minutes of their time to talk about an issue at hand. Using the upbeat music allowed me to hopefully persuade my target audience to keep listening. Honestly, what young person would really want to continue listening to a podcast that gives them a bad impression from the get go?

I found it difficult to get my idea onto paper, however once I figured out what topic I was going to talk about, the words honestly just flowed out as I feel so strongly on the topic at hand. Being passionate about the topic is another way to keep the viewers wanting more, as they know what is being said really is coming from the heart.

Overall, I have learnt from this task to not be afraid to speak up, put your thoughts, opinions, ideas and passions into the world.

Speak even if your voice shakes.

References

Cabrera, N, Matias, C & Montoya, R 2017, ‘Activism or Slacktivism? The Potential and Pitfalls of Social Media in Contemporary Student Activism’, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 400-15, doi:10.1037/dhe0000061

Music

‘Ho Hey’ by Steve Jackson (CC BY-SA 3.0)

‘Inspirational Life’ by Soundotcom (CC BY-SA 3.0)

ONLINE PERSONA

Social media is such a prevalent platform of communication in this day and age. I personally don’t know many people who do not have some form of online communication platform whether that be Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and so forth.

Desire to fit in with the crowds?

Based upon my personal observations alone I have discovered that many people are extremely concerned about their online presence and how they present themselves for others to view. Online identity has become incredibly important to individuals to create a desired persona to produce to the public for others consumption (Frunzaru & Garbasevschi 2016).

For me personally, my online identity has always been fairly minimal as even in ‘real life’ I am a naturally shy person, so I don’t really seem to advertise a great deal of my life on social media.

Particularly now that I’ve grown up and gotten older, my persona has become a lot more reserved; when I was younger and cared less about how others viewed me as I would constantly post status’ on Facebook and share countless photos on my Instagram account as these were always the platforms I used most when I was a tween.

Once I hit about year 10 at school, it was a pretty common thing for friends to scroll through Facebook profiles to find old, embarrassing status’ and photos shared years prior, making the person who initially posted the content cringe with embarrassment.

To avoid this situation as a whole, I went onto my social media accounts to delete all the embarrassing posts I had made. Looking back now, I can understand that the only reason I ever spent hours upon hours deleting words from my past was because I was way too concerned with how my fellow peers and family would have perceived me within my social media accounts.

Feelings of belonging to a community is extremely important to an individual throughout teenage years particularly (Baxter and Haycock 2014).  In order for myself to feel as if I belonged, I began to limit my active involvement on social media, I would bite my tongue and not speak up purely because I had such a strong desire to fit in with the crowds…

Feelings of belonging is extremely important (Baxter and Haycock 2014)

My main public Instagram account once upon a time was very much all over the place with many different and I could even say pointless photos and captions with a large variety of random filters? I suppose I was probably trying to be cool and creative by using these filters as that seemed to be what everyone did back when we were 10 years old first discovering Instagram.

Right now, I can honestly say I have two different accounts on Instagram, one being my public account where anyone and everyone can follow me and see the aspects of my life in which I choose to share with the world, most of these being the more exciting and adventurous side of me.

Private account?!

With the other one being my private account which I had initially created for just my eyes only to use as a memory bank, which soon turned to having my closest friends following the account also and a place where I now share the goofy and more outgoing side to me where I am not afraid to post anything as I know the audience is just my close friends so I’m not hesitant to share that side of me with them.

Figure 1, screenshot from my personal Instagram account

As shown in figure one above, my most recent Instagram photos have been from recent travelling events, a birthday party and just simply a cool wall in the city. We all get to pick and choose what we share with the world and the persona in which we want to create can be achieved by deciphering what images would be best suited to be posted to social media, in my case Instagram.

Figure 2, screenshot taken from my personal Instagram account

Figure two above shows an image that I photoshopped of myself years ago in an attempt to win concert tickets (I might add that my days of persistence actually paid off!) a goofy image like this would never have made it to my actual main public Instagram account, however it most definitely gave my closest friends a bit of a laugh on my private account. I enjoy being free in what I post on this account as I’m not concerned about how I am perceived.

Worried about others opinions…

Personally, for me, I feel as if I am too focused on how others perceive me through my online presence within social media platforms. Separating my private and public Instagram accounts in particular allows me to express myself how I want to in both the public eye and also within my close knit friendship group.

Hopefully one day I will be less afraid to put my goofy side in the public eye also…

Until next time,
Brooke


References

Baxter, J & Hitchcock, J 2014, ‘Roles and student identities in online large course forums: Implications for practice’, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 20-40, retrieved 13 April 2019, EBSCOhost.

Frunzaru, V & Garbasevschi, D 2016, ‘Students’ Online Identity Management’, Journal of Media Research, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 3-13, retrieved 13 April 2019, EBSCOhost.


Welcome!

Hey guys, welcome to my first ever blog post! This marks the beginning of a daunting yet exciting adventure of I guess being a ‘blogger’. Wow. Never in a million years thought I would ever call myself a blogger. Seems a little bit crazy to me that I, the shy girl who never speaks in classes, now will be speaking her mind for all to see.

Photo by Bianca Sagor, March 5 2019

I’ve always been an avid user of social media; I’m basically active on all main social media platforms that you could probably think of. To all my ALM101 peers; yes, that does include Twitter too! I have always found social media to be an area in which we are free to express ourselves as who we truly are without too much fear of the judgement. Although I am being quite hypocritical there… I never tend to post publicly all that much on social media… I suppose that would make me a lurker? I guess it’s time to change that.

“Seek Discomfort.”

Yes Theory

I find myself to fall deep into the traps on Netflix and YouTube almost daily, where I end up procrastinating for hours on end. Yes I may become quite unproductive whilst I get stuck in the trap of YouTube, however there is one channel in particular that is playing a role in me taking the first step to write a blog post.

Yes Theory.

Yes Theory creates content for the sole purpose to push their movement to encourage people to step outside their comfort zone. Their motto quite literally is “Seek Discomfort”, and that is exactly what I am going to do by getting involved and making an official blog. I now have the power to post little excerpts about my life and simply by publishing this first post, I will be follow that motto of seeking discomfort.

comfort by savoryexposure (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Until next time,

Brooke