The ever growing popularity of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook has resulted in people taking up a lot more causes. Recent examples of this are the campaign to change a Twitter avatar to green as a form of protest against the alleged rigging of the Iran elections, and a plethora of Facebook groups ranging from bushfires, to cancer, to dogs as shark bait, etc.
Unfortunately, all this has achieved is to make it easy for people to claim they are supporting a cause, when all they are really doing is making a couple of mouse clicks on a computer. Tokenism!
In most cases, they are appropriate causes for people to support. Indeed, I’ve joined a whole bunch of them myself. And I’m as guilty of tokenism.
Isn’t it time for us to get a bit more genuine, a bit more serious about our support for appropriate causes? If we’re concerned about bushfires, as a minimum we should be donating money. But why not contribute some time to organisations like SES, CFA or Red Cross? Or a myriad of other organisations who are currently providing support to those impacted by the fires?
If we’re concerned about Iran, then why not donate to Amnesty International? Or better still, why not give them some of our time? Dogs? RSPCA. Cancer? Get out there and actively support the vast range of support organisations.
Next time you think about starting or joining a cause on Twitter, Facebook or the like, why not make sure it’s a group where you can say I actively did something for that cause. We need more people who are genuine about the causes they support and not just mouse clickers.
Paul Daniel's Views On The World, For What They're Worth 
Completely agree with you – it takes the meaning away from it entirely. I feel the same about the proliferation of rubber wristbands and Earth Hour. FFS, turning the lights off for an hour, when the very next night you run 3 plasma TVs in your house and 2 fridges ain’t gonna change the world…
i support your article about tokenism. 🙂
I was so, so tempted to Unapprove that comment. 😉
Agreed – and yep, guilty of the green-icon tokenism.
I guess one thought would be of “awareness” – there were lots of ppl asking “what is it for” – and didn’t even know about whats occurred/occurring in IRAN.
But you’re right – too many people say “someone should do something about X” – meaning “someone, but not me”.
Tokenism + hypocrisy are closely related.
I totally agree on your post about Tolkenism. It’s about time this Lord of the Rings rubbish, and that’s what it is, rubbish was exposed. If the books and films are so good, go to work dressed as a damn hobbit!
Hehe.. sorry couldn’t resist.
Burtonism – changing a twitter avatar to help a TV network renew a show (Chuck).
As I was sitting at home yesterday wondering what the hell I could blog about, I never would have thought I’d generate this much excitement. 😉
Agree with you about Tokenism and agree with Chris about “awareness”.
Since you mentioned “Iran” I have to clarify something: in that case and other similar causes, the only thing people from other countries can do is to “care” or at least Pretend like they care about the matter, discuss it with others and even write to their MPs or Government. Involving and directing “Public Opinion” on political and “human rights” causes, is far more important than making a donation or anything else.
Then we can hope we don’t see “killing a fly by Obama” on top of news when Islamic regime of Iran is killing innocent people.
Btw, nice blog!
I liked it when you just took nice photo’s of wildlife…