I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. There seems to be some confusion over the concept of social awareness and social change.
Social awareness creates education in regards to an issue. There are many ways to raise social awareness. It can be a magazine or newspaper article. It could come from a group you joined on Facebook, that you support on Twitter, or by the act of blogging about the issue. It involves making people aware of organizations and non-profits as well as crisis situations such as Haiti.
Social Media has brought to the forefront more causes and non-profit agencies than people were exposed to before. I can click Bill Gates’ twitter feed and see he is in Vienna at an AIDS conference. I can speak to the head of many organizations and even to people on the ground in serious conflicts.
There is no question about whether or not raising awareness is worthwhile.
Raising awareness is a key first step.
The next step is social change. That doesn’t mean open your wallet and donate – but that’s well received as well. It means a fundamental change in individual and governmental ideologies. We have to change the way we think about the world and then act on that change.
Two examples:
1 BP Oil Spill – awareness created by social media shows us how fragile and precious the earth really is and leads us to the fact we all need to lead more sustainable lives. We can do this with how we choose to consume and the way we vote.
2. Chocolate profiteering buzzkill. I learned about it through a blog and retweeted and linked to it on Facebook. It’s about the artificial creation of a shortage of cocoa beans. I’m aware, and I’m going to act.
Two examples: one complicated, and the other simple.
Does this mean we click, tweet, blog or what have you and then forget about it ? Conspicuous compassion is just one step towards social change/action. Which is a lot more difficult than a donation. Changing ideologies and thought processes – that’s the tough step.
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Awareness without Action is akin to Apathy
I’ve been running this very thing through my head for almost a year now. A portion of my difficulty is that, by my nature and much like many people, I want to help wherever I see a need.
Difficulties arise when I choose to act; I become overwhelmed with giving financial resources or time to deserving causes, as well as with making large, sweeping changes in my lifestyle to affect change. In the end, I do nothing.
I’ve had to make some clear guidelines for myself:
1) I only link publicly to causes I am seriously passionate about. You can view these causes rotating through my Facebook Profile image – I use the space to educate on and promote awareness of the causes I support, instead of to show my face. Right now I am promoting DuckDuckGooseShirt.com because for every order, they donate $2 to the Nature Conservancy’s Fund for Gulf Restoration.
2) If I link publicly, I make a commitment – I identify and change 1 thing in my life that will affect beneficial change. Sometimes that change is financial, but more often it is a change in lifestyle. For example, I’m a supporter of the 3/50 Project and have decided to integrate the purchase locally raised poultry into my monthly grocery stock.
3) If I cannot make a commitment personally, I identify 1 person from my life who can benefit from the work of the cause and I pass the information to them.
These are small steps, to be sure. I am only one person, but I am one person acting.
terrific insights, K. Thanks, too, to Lisa for great personal stories. This reminds me of the concept of “optimum arousal” which I first read about in the context of the developmental cycle of activism. (There is a lot written about this from a physiology lens, too.) I found it really interesting because I’d always been really judge-y when I saw people NOT acting, changing, getting involved. Key points: it has to matter (not just intellectually) to you, personally. The effects have to be strong enough to disrupt your life on an ongoing basis. Support in community and access to some form of resources are key. I’m so glad to be reminded of this because it raised a question: what really, really matters to me and what am I going to do about it.