Cause + computer - effort = slacktivism.
Since the New! IMPROVED!! Facebook was unveiled a few weeks ago, the folks who run that social networking service have been getting a lot of negative feedback from their user base.
The complaints aren’t particularly unreasonable. Most of them focus on usability and privacy issues. And for what it’s worth, I agree with these observations. But to me these issues are minor irritations; I don’t like them, but I can put up with them. Other Facebook members are far more upset.
An online petition is being circulated on Facebook, describing a series of changes that the signers would like to see. This is a textbook case of slacktivism; folks embracing a cause while using the least amount of effort possible to carry out their protests. The thing is, I’m not sure slacktivism is the best approach for bringing about change.
It seems to me that the less effort someone appears to be putting into a cause, the less serious about that cause the person appears to be. I personally think the slacktivist approach to swaying the Facebook Powers That Be will be ineffective.
Arguing that a tool is unworkable while demonstrating that the tool can, in fact, still be used doesn’t exactly build a case for the argument. It would be much more effective for people who want to register their displeasure with the New! IMPROVED!! Facebook to let their feet do the talking and leave Facebook.
I doubt the Facebook Powers That Be will take this petition seriously unless and until they actually see a negative impact as a direct result of the new interface. From what I can tell, the folks who’ve signed this petition are still using Facebook. If that’s the case, from Facebook’s perspective, where’s the motivation to change things back? They’ve lost nothing; their users are still using it.
If the folks who support this petition want to express unhappiness with Facebook’s new interface, they should prove just how unhappy with it they are and quit Facebook – then encourage the members of their network(s) to do the same and switch to an alternate social networking service.
Get Facebook’s attention. Do more than just continue to use Facebook while complaining on Facebook about Facebook. Take your business elsewhere.
