In the Chicago Tribune today they used a term I haven't seen before, slacktivism . Apparently it means being "slack" about activism. This is from the article

quote:

One minute everyone is all warm and fuzzy, laughing at friends who portrayed themselves as Elmer Fudd, Sweet Polly Purebred or (extra credit here) Lance Crossfire, and the next minute a quarrel breaks out over something called "slacktivism," which in this case means calling attention to yourself in the guise of raising awareness of a nobler cause. If you really want to fight child abuse, then write a check, Bozo.

Here's the article. Have you heard it?

I've never heard the word, but I like it. It's the perfect put-down for inane Facebook memes. The quote made no sense to me until I read the article and learned that it was about the mindless fads on Facebook that are supposed to get people to fight for different causes by posting--in this case--a cartoon figure as their profile picture in order "to fight child abuse." Huh?

Another example of such slactivism was the totally weird meme last summer, passed privately from female to female, suggesting that that all we women on FB should post the color of the bras we were wearing to "help raise awareness of breast cancer." Really? All of a sudden, people were posting single word status messages that said "pink" or "black" or "beige." Another one was for all women to post a message saying where they usually set down their purses when they come home. Suddenly, Facebook was filled with mysterious status messages that said things like, "I like it on the kitchen table." "I like it hanging from the hat rack." I can't remember whether this was supposed to make us all more aware of some cause or other, but if so, it was probably world hunger, don't you think?

Thanks for the word, Kalleh. Now I can post anti-slactivism comments when these things pop up in the future.

Wordmatic

Yeah, when I reread that quote, I can see that it was taken out of context and not so understandable. I had read the article so it had made perfect sense to me. Sorry about that!

I am not sure how posting avatars or color of bras or where your purse is could raise awareness. Very strange.

I was amused that, a day or so after the meme about using cartoon characters was circulated, another followed saying it was all a clever ruse by paedophiles as someone with a cartoon profile picture is more likely to be trusted by children than someone with another picture.