..Describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction.
If you liked or shared this link on Facebook without knowing what was on this page you were practicing slacktivism.
One of the many generic (memeric?) updates I have recently been bombarded with as part of the cartoon character meme:
Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until monday, Dec 6th of 2010, there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for a campaign against violence on children!
The word is considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction.
I shared my feelings about about this meme, as it arrived to me, using the following language on Facebook:
Changing your Facebook photo seems to me like it's combining two different things - nostalgia and a very serious societal problem - and squishing them together to give people a warm fuzzy feeling when they deserve none.
We'll get back to this in a minute, but for now let's focus on what a meme is all about.
Meme
While media outlets are calling this "viral" or a "fad" or even, rightly, a "meme," I don't think there's general understanding among the greater population what it really means for something to be a meme.
Meme (rhyming with 'cream') is a word coined in the '70s by scientist Richard Dawkins to describe the concept that ideas are transmitted from one mind to another and evolve through imitation just as genes do. If you didn't really understand it before reading this, I've just caused a memetic (like genetic) mutation in your mind that can't be undone.
Upset? Sorry. Welcome to the 21st century.
I've never actually read Dawkins yet I basically understand what a meme is. How did that happen? My mind was invaded by memes.
And before I started writing this column I didn't know the word "slacktivist" existed. A friend of mine shared a link to it on Wikipedia and caused a memetic mutation in my mind.
I thank him for this.
So now you that you know what a meme is, let's talk also about how utterly useless this cartoon meme was when it arrived in my mind and what I want to do about it.
Cartoon Profile Picture Meme
On Facebook I initially asked the following about this meme:
How is your protest going to change something?
Facebook generally is such a lazy place where people spend countless hours doing absolutely nothing of tangible impact on the real world.
With regard to this meme, simply changing your profile picture delivers nothing somebody should feel better about.
Roy Rivenburg, a former Los Angeles Times writer who taught me at journalism school, asked me a simple question:
Can you cite examples [of memes] that evolved into something that actually effected change?
I can't.
But I have an idea.
I Am A Cartoon Meme
In the spirit of the current meme, I challenged my followers to the following:
If 10 people like this status I'll change my profile picture to an image of a cartoon and only change it back once I've donated something tangible (time, money, toy) to a charity. The point? I am a cartoon if I don't. Please, like this status and make me do good. If you feel inspired by this idea, do the same.
Within a half hour I had my 10.
And I promptly changed my profile picture to this:
And until I do something tangible it will stay that way. I will change my photo back and tell my friends that I've accomplished my task, without details.
But, more importantly, hopefully my memetic information will be incorporated by others in a way that can effect real change, per Rivenburg's point.
If not, then my meme ends here with me alone changed and with my solitary task completed.
Eumemics
I want to suggest the next time you write a status update consider what ideas you are instilling in the minds of others.
Today, I'm trying to point out how a meme, as stupid as it was, still changed me and how I'm trying to pay it forward.
Simply by putting this out into the world someone will look at this, process it, and produce something new. Maybe it moves beyond that or maybe it dies, but remember that just because a status update can be written in three seconds doesn't mean the same space can't be used to touch a billion people.
We’re going on our honeymoon today!!! I won’t have any phone or
Internet with me this week so I hope everyone has a great, safe week!!!
Congratulations on your wedding. What a sweet note. After “liking” this, I wondered.
I understand the basic concept of a honeymoon. A week away from all the worries of the world as you spend intimate time with your partner.
But no Internet?
Why? Why do that to yourself? Am I cheating on my spouse if I go on a honeymoon and take an iPad or iPhone? If I call ahead to the hotel and ensure they have free and solid wireless Internet access, am I less of a loving partner? Can I check Google Maps to see if there’s a Starbucks in the area for the free wifi?
I can’t go without my smartphone for a week and not without an Internet connection.
No, not the actual rain and snow. But that'd be cool.
I still remember first looking up the satellite view of my home on the Internet and getting lost for hours just exploring the maps.
I'm trying to imagine what it would be like for someone who is just being introduced to the Internet today. Now people can actually explore locations in three dimensions with live weather and real-time traffic and all sorts of additional information.
And, today, it's not just a click away, but also just a tap away.
Nicky Haik was stuck at home sick for a week when he was 13. Out of boredom, he started playing “World of Warcraft.”
During the next five years, he says he spent somewhere between 175 and 200 solid days, or well over 4,000 hours, playing the game made by Irvine-based Blizzard. On average, that’s more than two hours per day every day. According to Haik, he could start the game up on a Friday when he got home from school and not turn it off until early Monday morning.
The 18-year-old New Jersey resident and recent high school grad decided it was time to quit, and he did so earlier this month in extraordinary fashion. He had tried deactivating his account before, but that only lasted a couple of weeks before he turned it back on again.
On July 8, he started up the video camera and began dismantling everything he had created through the years.
In just under two minutes, he gives away all of his virtual gear and manually deletes his characters. He initially linked the video on Facebook to prove to family and high school classmates he had finally done it.
He says he didn’t expect it to be viewed by so many people. It was late when he made it, and he accidentally typed the wrong number of hours he spent playing the game. He concludes the video by deleting his primary character, stating “I hope this inspires you to quit as well. Remember, the ‘cooler’ you [sic] character looks in World of Warcraft, the sadder your real life is.”
The video has become a minor Internet sensation, garnering more than 400,000 views in the few weeks since it has been out and becoming a lightning rod for discussion about addiction in video games.
The morning after he posted it to his friends on Facebook it had 3,000 views. Then he looked again, and it had 30,000 views. By that evening, it had 100,000 and 200,000 the next day.
“You could have just kept your toons and play WoW casually like a normal person,” writes @Gr0mmet, one of some 4,300 comments on the video.
Another user, Th0mius, said “I balance a full time job, a girlfriend, college, healthy friendships in REAL LIFE, Travel, and a full Raid schedule…. don’t blame wow, blame yourself.”
They’re not all bad, in fact, many are supportive.
“Great job. I’m cheering for You dude! The world is waiting! :D,” writes @TheR00Z, another Youtube user.
He did it because he says he was addicted.
“I was addicted and felt compelled to play whenever I could in order to get better gear, more gold and more achievements. This grind eventually became very boring…I couldn’t stop though because of all the time I had invested in it and this “need” for virtual gear and gold I possessed,” said Haik.
The video seems to have struck a chord with people, some arguing whether you can be addicted to World of Warcraft.
Haik points to the analytical user data for his video which shows it is popular with males age 18-44. He thinks that, along with the critical comments, means “World of Warcraft is a fairly big insecurity in men ages 18-34, which is why they viewed the video AND felt compelled to comment and explain their story or view of the situation,” Haik says. “The video seemed to be successful because it targeted an issue that concerned almost all serious WoW players, that being addiction and the resulting lesser social life.”
Bonnie Nardi, a UC Irvine anthropology professor and author of “My Life as a Night Elf Priest,” a book about “World of Warcraft” written from the perspective of an anthropologist, points out all the positive things a game like WoW can instill in a player.
“People who play games such as World of Warcraft are active agents; they develop skilled play, they play in collaboration with others…these active aspects of gaming tend to be hidden but they are much more characteristic of game play as a whole than the small percentage of people whose personal problems lead them to seek solace in a game,” said Nardi. “They might just as easily seek solace in alcohol or develop food-related disorders, or engage in excessive exercise. Of course gamers themselves are not immune to the messages of the culture, and may feel vaguely guilty about the time they spend playing. That they often have to justify this time to friends and family does not help. No one asks them why they are spending so much time watching television, an activity requiring far less cognitive capacity, sociality, and inventiveness than playing a game like World of Warcraft.”
For his part, Haik says his friends and family are happy he quit, and since quitting he has gone out with friends, attended parties and started playing the piano more.
“Even when I’m doing ‘nothing’ and just hanging around the house, it is more relaxing than playing WoW every night till 3 a.m.”
Haik said this summer he is working as a pool lifeguard and will attend Connecticut College in the fall.
In one month, who do you pay for your entertainment and connectivity?
Here’s what we pay for myself and my spouse:
$120/month ATT W/2 YEAR CONTRACT
– $30 Unlimited Data on iPhone 3GS
– $30 Unlimited Data on iPhone 4
– $10 Service fee for extra line
– $50 Minimum minutes
– $0 Text messages, routed through Google Voice instead
$40/month TWC
– Only high speed Internet from Time Warner Cable
– Use rabbit ears for HD cannels to an HD TV
$9/month NETFLIX
– Mostly instant streaming, discs now unused
$10/month HULU
– Recently joined Hulu Plus, offering full seasons of some shows
$8/month XBOX360
– Enables access to Netflix instant streaming and multi-player gaming
~$100/month MISC
– Apps. Music. Movies. We’ll go to the theater a couple times a month and we’ll download an album on iTunes maybe once a month. We’ve tried Redbox but we rarely go to Blockbuster. We download apps by the dozens. These are new and I haven’t quite tabulated an average for us yet. It could easily be $100-$200 a month combined with music and movies.
I should note that my company also offers to offset your cell phone service by $40/month if you choose to use your own cell phone for work. The Register also provides a Windows laptop and Sprint wireless connectivity to connect to the Internet when on the go.
Some people out there who look at this are probably shocked by how much we pay for our entertainment, minutes and Internet access. To others, this is likely a drop in the bucket.
That’s what this post is about.
Confess your technology sins in the comments of this post or on Twitter and Facebook. Let this be a time capsule for your media-consumption habits. I’d be willing to bet next year you won’t be paying the same amount of money to the same companies.
For those of you mentioning this on Twitter, use the Hashtag #beunwired.
If I was to write out my list in shortform for Twitter, I’d do it like this:
I pay $287/month total each month for my tech. cell $120 Internet $40 netflix $9 xbox360 $8 hulu $10 Misc $100
I never really understood why the Kindle needed 3G connectivity in the first place.
At $139 for the wifi only version the Kindle is starting to push a price point that few can refuse and would be difficult to match by something like the iPad.
