Everyday we see social network campaigns attempting to create awareness on certain issues or events. Although these trends go crazy, it seems more than often they last for about a month then they die down drastically. Although this may be the case, we can thank these campaigns for informing us on events or issues that are happening all over the world. The term that has been given to these people who are so active online is “slactivists’. Slactivism is defined by Rotmal et al. ‘as low-risk, low-cost activity via social media, whose purpose is to raise awareness, produce change, or grant satisfaction to the person engaged in the activity’. This new trend has has taken the world by storm, and many people think that this is enough on their part to make a difference. Although this maybe true in some way, there are many examples of horrific events that have been in the publics eye and easily forgotten about as people think they have done their part by putting up a photo with a hashtag on it. Take for example the horrible event in Nigeria when over 300 teenage girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, a gang of armed Jihadists, on the night of April 14, 2014. It was not until May 3 and 4 that the entire world joined in on the hunt for the terrorist group. This search was not started by a bunch of tweets, hashtags and status updates, it was initiated by non-violent protests which the Internet merely helped the news spread.

Those girls will live torturous lives under oppression, and there won’t be any more “#bringbackourgirls” hashtags, because the next big issue will be the new # trend. Although around half of the girls that were taken have been found after going through horrible experiences such as multiple gang rapes and now pregnancy the new trend seems to be western societies insisting they have the right to abort these unborn babies. ‘They took turns having sex with me,’ one of the girls had said after being found. One, this isnt our decision to make for them, two it will not fix the hardship they have endured and three, these girls all come from catholic families where it is frowned upon to get abortions. This frustrates me more as not only do we think we can help them through the use of celebrity hashtags and status updates, but now western societies are attempting to dictate how these girls must deal with everything they have been through. Social issues/events can use technology mediated social participation as mentioned above because it helps in spreading news or information. Many have suggested that grassroot organisations should use the internet as an effective tool for political change. Individual use of the Internet may create awareness that is needed but we cannot rely on the click of a mouse to fix all the worlds problems. For me this is not a medium we should use to clear our conscience or tell others how to fix all their problems. It is something we should use to make a change.