Tierney Rocky's Blog

It is becoming apparent that I have started to actively read Brian Solis’ blog. He writes about various topics, and I am enjoying thinking about his ideas and prompts. Here is another one of my posts based off his.

In Brian’s post “Social Slacktivism” (see here) he points out how there have been many debates as to whether or not social media promotes activism or actually fosters a lazy form of participation. Indeed, Retweets and Likes don’t bring about change. I find this topic very interesting, as I am the marketing director for the Commerce Community Program (CCP). Writing tweets and Facebook status’ to raise awareness and try to create a convincing call to action for Sauder students towards social issues is exactly what I do – or try to do.

In his post, Brian interviews David Batstone, co-founder and president of NotforSale which is a company leading the movement to end modern slavery and human trafficking. They discuss how society overestimates the power of social media. Although it is good to create awareness, all too often it stops there. Awareness isn’t enough. The true measure is in the act of giving a solution to the problem, as this is what has impact. Unfortunately, today’s younger generation has come to believe that their tweets of awareness hold more value than the donation itself, with the naïve assumption that if only people would become aware things would change. But as David states, assumption has its place but its limits. Our generation is exposed to so much and we know what’s going on, but what do we do about it? In other words, how do we prevent “slacktivism”?

According to David, to build a movement you need to combine the best of social media with tangible things that make a difference. For example, if you create a band (similar to the Livestrong bands), that’s good- but it must add more than shallow tribal identity to the issue. It must lead to something you can message about. In attempts to describe this, he has created his own term to challenge slacktivism, called “tracktivism”.

To see the way NotforSale tracks its impact, watch the interview here. It really is interesting and led me to my thoughts below.

This got me thinking about how we could do more trackable initiatives in CCP. So far, I think we do a good job of encouraging actual change. For example, our Operation Christmas Child urges students to fill a shoebox with toys and school supplies for the age group of their choice, which the CCP then mails to the original organization, Samaritan’s Purse. Another initiative called 5 Days for the Homeless Team has students spend a whole 5 days in the winter living outside with only the clothes on their backs. It is up to them to ask for food and alternative methods of warmth, while telling their stories and those of the homeless, spreading awareness as other students approach them. This is effective because they stay on campus and others who walk by may recognize them and wonder why they all of a sudden appear to be homeless. Throughout the lead up to these 5 days many donations come in, which gets sent to shelters for downtown Vancouver’s homeless.

After watching this interview I felt inspired because I realized that the CCP is indeed doing its part to create trackable results. Donations are actually sent in, and photos of the charity work in action are taken, to be later posted on Facebook. Lastly, the CCP takes the time to comment on the walls of those who helped donate or who came out to support their various events, further promoting involvement and tracking successes as they come. One area in which I do think we could improve however, is to encourage more discussion of the events, after they occur. Anticipation beforehand lends itself well to starting discussion, but often when an event is over, that charity and social issue is not discussed again for the rest of the year.