I wrote a piece when Pokemon Go first came out about the backlash Go-ers faced on social media for being happy and excited about the game. The general sentiment among some was that it was appalling to waste your time on PG when so much horrible shit was happening in the world. Similar sentiments exist with those “sportsball” posts, shaming people for grabbing onto a tiny piece of happiness in a world that bombards you with shit all day every day. I myself am on the brink of quitting Facebook, as I rarely see anything new and everything I do see is awful (not the news stories, those are awful everywhere, but the commentary along with them). It has become an echo chamber, strike that, a performative echo chamber from which meaningful discussion is absent and confirmation of things you already believe has taken over. I don’t want to quit social media, however, because it is an important part of my activism. I wonder if this is a good thing, though, or keeping me from fighting other important battles.
Now, I liked FB for finding out about shit the mainstream media ignores. The DAPL protests and arrests, for example, are missing from most major news sites or they’re hidden on page 16. But this isn’t 2009 where few alternative news sites exist. We have a plethora of places to keep us honestly up to speed on things buried by more popular sites. I wake up and check the DAPL sites first Indian Country Today Media Network is good, Sacred Stone Camp is good, and many more), hit the major sites, a few indie places, and then to facebook. Almost always I find nothing new on FB, but I do find a lot of judgemental bullshit:
An environmental catastrophe article posted with the sarcastic caption, “well, we don’t need to care about this as long as the ghostbusters are all women now.” An article about trump posted with the comment that working to end racist and sexist speech will ruin free speech, which makes SJW just as bad as Trump. An article about a school shooting with a quip degrading those who fight for safe spaces when this kind of thing still happens. I argue on FB, often tirelessly, as do many of my friends. But that tireless thing is getting impossible, and I worry that FB fights do more harm than good.
Activism has to mean something beyond spreading these articles around on FB and Twitter with well written quips that make your causes seem important and others’ causes seem trivial. There has to be more to activism than taking a shit on anyone who doesn’t fight for the “right” cause or post about X or Y enough. There has to be more about caring for human suffering than passing around articles about the next awful thing like it’s social currency. Look how informed I am.
I was taught activism was about creating political and social change. I guess people would argue that they are being activist by passing around things others have written on important topics, but I don’t know if in today’s world of social media that is creating any change (besides unfollow, unfriend, and block). Backlash or mass outrage certainly has changed policies and outcomes for some people, for the better, no doubt. But we can do better than that, I think. At least I hope.
What does an activism look like that focuses on small, achievable battles? We can volunteer, we can participate in fundraisers, we can get into politics, we can write letters and make phone calls to politicians, we can write meaningful pieces that go beyond a short Facebook insult, we can take time to articulate positions smartly and thoroughly. A student of mine recently started working on a campaign to train people how to use Narcan, something you probably haven’t heard of. They are working within organizations, securing grant funding, designing educational documents, and conducting social media campaigns. They will create real, measurable change. It would be easy to say, hey, why focus on Narcan when women are being sexually assaulted, racism is at a terrifying high, and all the other horrible shit is happening? But there has to be something good about creating change, no matter how small, rather that banging your head against the wall because the issue is too big for you to make a dent.
We have been writing this blog for over 5 years. We do many fundraisers, and I like to think we work to make concrete changes to make the gaming industry better for women and minorities. I wonder what would have happened if we never creating the site, and instead just passed around articles for our friends to see? Maybe we fight small battles. I certainly can be an easy target, as I talk about things like Pokemon Go while climate change is destroying our planet. But this November, like the last 6 Novembers, I will raise $500 or more for Children’s Miracle Network, along with thousands of gamers (who ultimately raised $22 million last year). That isn’t nearly as important as fighting the astronomical amount of racism and sexism in the American public. But this weekend I will volunteer to package food to help Minnesota families in need. Nope that doesn’t do anything to stop Trump. But I have decided I’m going to stop letting myself off the hook and stop convincing myself that I’ve done my duty to make this world better by passing along an article or video about a cause on Facebook. I’m not going to be just an armchair activist any more. And you shouldn’t either.
