"Slacktivism"

Madonna in Africa

We often see celebrities out on the news magically turn into a major humanitarian. Whether it is supporting education in Africa or the stop of vaccines, every celebrity seems to have some cause they are fighting for. It seems suspicious that a celebrity will talk about Africa for a few months, spend about a month in Africa, taking pictures with kids and then come back talking about what a lifetime experience they had. Sure, they might have donated a lot of money, but to what extent are they actually helping to get better education or end world hunger. They are fighting for great causes but they really aren't doing anything helpful to stop the issue. They portray Africa as a helpless place which calls help from everywhere except the country itself. This New York Times article, "Celebrities Should Not Victimize Africa" compares these celebrities to the old Christian Ministries, which ended up turning Africa into a place of "racial hierarchy" and "economic exploitation."

The ways of these celebrities have seemed to rub off onto many high school students. I have seen many kids go on to do a service trip in South Africa or Thailand. They go for 2 weeks at a time, and get credit for helping out, but what can be really accomplished in 2 weeks. Everyone is looking now to be a humanitarian, and are willing to take large strides to get there. The largest example of what I have heard as referred to as "slacktivism" was the Kony 2012 campaign. Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers everywhere changed their Facebook statuses to promote catching Kony. Many people didn't even know who Kony was or why they wanted to catch him, but it sounded like a good cause and something good to do.

With this new trend of "slacktivism," it could potentially lead to results of people thinking they're being helpful when they aren't. What are some potential results of this? What are some real solutions that people could do? Is there something kids could do if they really wanted to get involved?