I’ve been seeing the hashtag #enditmovement pop up in my social media lately. When I did some Googling I found the organization’s webpage, which seems VERY basic. There seems to be limited action on what exactly they are going to do to stop slavery. Instead they rely on the user to click through to other websites to do research on their own.
One of the major problems with my generation and the subsequent generations after mine is that we are very lethargic toward actually doing anything. In short, we are lazy. Many people think that simply by changing an icon on social media one is making a difference. They crave that warm fuzzy feeling one has at the end of the day thinking they truly made a difference in the lives of a slave in a third world country.
The photo above seems to be contrived, so forced. The guy on the left seems to be holding up his fist thinking he made a difference today, without necessarily knowing how the basic economics of charity work.
Those who disagree with me would argue that writing an “x” on one’s hand raises awareness of a cause. Raising awareness is immeasurable. It could be huge, slight, or nothing at all. Sometimes the social media awareness campaign can have a negative effect. One harkens back to the #kony movement of 2012. The movement itself received criticism for oversimplifying the problems of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Remember Livestrong bracelets, magnetic ribbons, or the AIDS ribbon? The AIDS ribbon is the grandfather of useless flare. On Seinfeld, Kramer refuses to wear the ribbon calling the charity worker a “ribbon bully.” Kramer, always a subscriber to the counter culture movement, does not want to wear the ribbon simply because he is told he has to. Instead Kramer chooses to actually do something, that is get family and friends to pledge monetary pledges through an AIDS walk. I can’t agree more with Kramer.
What these slacktivists must realize is that changing one’s icon on social media is not enough. Charities need time and money which are two things college students aren’t likely to give up very easily. So instead they go to sleep at night thinking they made a difference by writing a red x on their hand, changing an icon or writing a hashtag on social media.