Yesterday, I read a tweet from someone who had just signed and invited others to sign to pledge to believe that all students can learn. It got me thinking about social media activism: what it is… what it isn’t.
Tweeting, liking, clicking, hashtagging have become common ways to stand for something and publicize your values..to show your support for whatever you support…candidates or kittens. You can hashtag protect Planned Parenthood. Tweet for justice. Click to feed a family. Post this pic or like it to love your neighbor. Make a meme. We’ve all done it. Tweeting and liking and sharing … the lazy man’s showing up. It feels like virtue. It’s as close to call centers for your candidate as you can get without having to actually get there. In this new world we are led to believe that pledging to believe that children can learn is virtually same as working with them in a classroom or volunteering in an after school center year after year.
With out a doubt, social media presence has value. A tweet can bring a crowd. A viral video or a hashtag on a timely phrase can increase awareness, publicize a cause, start a movement. On the other hand, sometimes social media activism is the weak gesture. It doesn’t require much effort to sign in and tweet your values. At times, celebrating them even has a mild odor of online preening. (Notice my values… such a great thing about me.) And there is what is implied. In the case of pledging to believe that students can learn… one can infer the slur underneath… a pledge to believe is an implicit accusation of disbelief. We who pledge to believe do so because there is a #beliefgap©. It’s social justice branding, and there’ s a website for that.
So, in case you want to engage in some low impact showing up or showing off, some self or team branding… you can sign up to pledge to believe that all children can learn… I could link you to the site, but in the interests of showing your commitment through your actions, I invite whoever wants to sign up to google their own way to the site. It may not be that easy, but sometimes you just have to work for what you believe in while in your pajamas and eating a snack.