The Limits of Hashtag Activism

Posted: 09/12/2014 Huffington Post online

For the past two months, my Facebook newsfeed has been

spammed with ALS Ice Bucket Challenges. Yes, I
shamelessly enjoy watching them. Possibly the biggest social
media-fueled social activism since the infamous Kony 2012,
the Challenge has gotten everyone from Sarah Palin to
Leonardo DiCaprio dumping ice cold water on themselves.
There are different versions of it (I did it with a mix of the
Clean Water Challenge), different statistics shared in each
accompanying status, but does it -- and any other forms of
"hashtag activism" -- actually have any impact?

It depends how you would define "impact." If it means

fundraising, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has definitely
succeeded. Donations reached $100M in one month during
the viral Challenge, compared with $2.8M raised last year during the same time period. Yes,
not everyone donates, and there is something not totally right about taking the challenge to
avoid donating. But if the goal is to raise money, the challenge has certainly been proven to
be effective. Why? It's fun, easy, accessible -- everything an armchair clicktivist could want,
and whether the viral activity is self-serving or not, there's no disputing the 3,500 percent
increase in donations.

Another way to define "impact" is awareness. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of simply
increasing awareness. It doesn't matter if everyone knows about world hunger unless we act
to stop the problem. But in the cases where the ultimate goal is policy change, solving the
problem can be closely connected to awareness. #BringBackOurGirls, for example, very well
could have spurred the (albeit, quite small) search for the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls. The
kidnapping happened April 14, the hashtag reached its peak almost a month later on May 5,
and the U.S. began searching just a week after that. Yes, it helps to have world leaders like
Gordon Brown speaking out too, but the press coverage directly correlated with the use of
hashtag. It appeared that this hashtag activism was working, until the tragic nature of the
hashtag took hold: it became a fad. These girls have still not returned home. But it appears
that social media has forgotten them.

Awareness can have another affect: lasting engagement in an

organization or cause. This is where hashtag activism tends to
fall extremely short, given their fad-like nature. Will retweeting
a post like "I believe animal abuse is wrong, RT if you agree"
actually make the tweet's readers go out and volunteer at their
local shelter, or get more animal rights legislation in Congress
passed? Probably not. Social media is a good place to start.
Unfortunately, it's also where too many movements die out.
Hashtag activism is tricky. Here are some ways to do it right:

1. Use critical thinking: The campaign #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, protesting police

brutality in Ferguson, contrasts images the media could show and ones it does show of
someone who was gunned down. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old in Ferguson, MO,
was shot to death while unarmed and left dead in the middle of the street all afternoon.
The media chose to show a video of him displaying what they thought were gang signs
in attempt to justify his death. #IfTheyGunnedMeDown is powerful because it makes
people think. Awareness works when it has a target, and this campaign has one: the
media.
2. Go beyond the hashtag: social media can be good. So tweet all you want, share as
many statuses, but don't let it fill a "good person" quote and then never think about it
again. If you rep a cause on social media, find out what the next steps could be, and
take them. That being said, don't fall for every non-profit with a trendy hashtag.
Invisible Children, the organization behind Kony 2012, didn't have their facts right in
their viral video -- Kony had left Uganda years before -- and their funds were terribly
misallocated, in addition to a boatload of other problems. This isn't to say stopping
Kony is a bad thing, but that the organization that claimed to be doing it, and raised
millions after its Kony video went viral, was doing an awful job. Try Doctors without
Borders or UNICEF, both terrific organizations that get the most out of every penny.