My ‘pet peeve’ with online activism
Pet pictures are a fixture when it comes to social media, but if you were scrolling through Instagram this week, you probably noticed even more of them than usual.
This influx came about as a result of a viral prompt, which promised to plant one tree for every pet picture posted to Instagram with a specific ‘sticker’, linking all the photos into one public chain. The trend quickly went viral, and by Tuesday morning, it had amassed over 4.1 million responses. However, it soon became clear that there was uncertainty over the origins of the trend, and over who exactly was meant to be planting all these trees.
Then, on November 9th (a week after the trend began), an account called Plant A Tree Co. emerged as being responsible for the trend, explaining that they’d deleted the original post within ten minutes of posting as they immediately realised it would grow too big and they wouldn’t have the resources to plant that many trees. They also announced that they would be raising funds towards Trees For The Future in order to make use of the awareness they had garnered.
Though at first glance this seemed a fair response to a well intentioned if ill-conceived prompt, it came out that Plant A Tree Co. has fallen short in similar campaigns in the past. This has led many Instagram users to speculate over whether the viral pet picture prompt ever had any validity to it in the first place.
In all, the entire series of events was very indicative of how a certain type of ‘Instagram activism’ tends to play out.
A strong social media presence can be an extremely valuable commodity. It’s why we see countless spam and bot accounts trying to stack up as much followers, likes, and engagement as possible through endless promotions. Additionally, the anonymity of a social media account can oftentimes be the perfect opportunity to not be held accountable for your side of the deal, which leads to accounts feigning interest in social issues and making empty promises in exchange for valuable engagement.
This phenomenon is not entirely unfamiliar – after all, fake charity scams have been around since forever – but it seems to thrive especially well on platforms like Instagram, where virtue signalling and social pressure is rife.
Virtue signalling refers to the practice of publicly expressing opinions/sentiments in order to come across as someone with good character and a strong moral compass. Ultimately, it empties the meaning from social justice movements, shifting the focus onto how much someone cares about an issue instead of the issue itself. Social media can be a place of judgement and comparison, and this, coupled with today’s heightened emphasis on social responsibility, makes these platforms a place where virtue signalling flourishes.
Given all of this virtue signalling and the internet’s short attention span, it’s easy to fear that online activism is doomed to fall victim to an endless cycle, one which churns out a new topic for people to care about for a week before the next thing comes along. As such, people often don’t have the time to get fully caught up and educated on the latest issues or the things they’re supporting, and yet feel a pressure to participate in the discussion anyways. This can contribute to misunderstanding and misinformation, and can in fact do more harm than anything.
In truth, the way in which activism plays out online often leaves a lot to be desired, though I do feel inclined to argue that a lot of its problems aren’t entirely new. Feigning concern for social issues, moral grandstanding, and failing to educate yourself are not problems that social media created, rather they are problems that social media has exacerbated. However, the same goes for many of the positive aspects of activism.
Online activism affords an opportunity to convey information all over the world and reach millions, a feat that would not otherwise be possible. Fundraisers carried out online are exposed to more possible donators, who will likely share details of the project to their followers in turn, further boosting the response to worthy causes. Additionally, since raising awareness is such a vital component when it comes to these issues, social media’s impact in doing this and in encouraging people to rally together for the sake of a better good cannot go understated.
Four million trees will not be planted as a result of the pet pictures trend, and this is undoubtedly disappointing. On the bright side however, the sheer magnitude of the public’s response in such a short amount of time speaks to the power of social platforms when it comes to shining a light on important issues – plus, the pictures were very cute.
