Hi everybody, I hope you are doing well in week 6!
On the previous blog post, I reasoned the need to promote “systems thinking”, and this week we shall explore one of the cogwheels of environmentalism.
What I am referring to is environmental awareness.
In today’s digital age, social media is one of the top platforms to spread information and create awareness. Based on my survey, 59.4% of 32 respondents primarily keep up with Environmental news via social media and I believe that in future generations, this will rise.
Instagram in particular has been steadying gaining audience and even led to a new term “Instagrammable” that is popularly used to describe something worthy of sharing on Instagram.
We should rejoice that Instagram is spearheading the spread of environmental awareness… shouldn’t we?
Well, let us put our systems thinking into use and identify the obscured influence of social media…
1. Social media promotes “slacktivism”, which you could say is a slacker’s approach to activism.
There is a psychological effect of being less compelled to do a good deed after we believe we have already done so (Merritt et al, 2010). It is easy to like and share an environmental post on social media, and this may result in feeling less pressure to help the environment in a more tangible way – such as recycling that bottle you drank from as you scrolled through. This hampers our environmental efforts since we need more actions taken.
2. Viral videos also have the tendency to draw attention to only one particular incident, and often fail to shed light on the whole picture.
While the world was stunned by the Amazon burning down, did you know the Cerrado (which is just beside the Amazon) is facing a similar crisis (BBC, 2019)? To be honest, I didn’t till I did the research myself.
3. Similar to pop culture, viral social media news die out quickly.
We don’t see much of the Amazon on Instagram stories now, do we? Has the crisis been solved?
Unfortunately, the absence of coverage on the Amazon fires gives a false impression that it is resolved when it may actually get worse.
Back in 2019, the world was in outrage over the pictures and videos of the Amazon burning. Now the world’s attention is on our current crisis, Covid-19, and this hinders efforts to improve the ongoing Amazon situation (Bloomberg Green, 2020).
Does this mean social media publicity is harming the environment? I don’t think so! I believe in this case, there is no “bad publicity”, as being aware is better than staying totally ignorant.
However, we must remember to take a more active stance and not be fooled into thinking a simple “like” is enough to solve such big environmental issues. And why not start by learning the true reasons and complications behind the Amazon fires… I’ll even give you a simple one that summarises the main points – right here!
Hi Jia Wei, social media and technology certainly has caused our generation to be one that seeks instant gratification and has severely shortened our attention spans. I think there are some people, they leave a like and leave thinking they have done their part. Yet I think a major issue regarding this is whether the individual has the knowledge on how an individual like you and me can effect change on such large issues. This is something that I personally struggle with as well. Really insightful post looking forward to the next one. 🙂
Hi Li Zhe,
You bring up a great point about how individuals want to help but do not know how to effectively do so. I feel this really boils down to the lack of emphasis on environmental education. I don’t recall having any lessons in school where my teacher taught me eco-friendly habits and how these can help our environment. I can’t say I adopt the eco-friendly approach to everything either, and sometimes it is hard to see how I could feasibly adopt the alternatives. Perhaps in the future we could implement environmental education in schools as an actual syllabus, or even as compulsory workshops. When we understand what we can do and what effect it has, it makes it more meaningful to take the extra effort to be eco-friendly. Hope to hear your thoughts on the next one as well!
Hi Jiawei,
I think that your point on slacktivism is an interesting way to look at it. I think social media for environmental awareness does have its benefits and drawbacks, and despite the drawbacks that you mentioned, its unprecedented reach is one very strong benefit. Perhaps this reach is more significant than the other drawbacks it presents? Because I feel like education may still be lacking in some groups of people and social media does help to fill that gap. But of course, it would be ideal to for social media to not have those negative effects. If only…
Thanks for sharing and I’m looking forward to see your next post!
Clive
Hi Clive,
Glad to hear your optimism for social media. Indeed, social media can be the turning point we need to get people to act. In the past, it can be very difficult to convince the public to adopt eco-friendly behaviours because everything feels so distant. With social media, everything feels way closer to home and we are now exposed to the devastating environmental crises of places we never seen or heard of. Education is definitely still lacking and social media can be used to fill the gap, but it has to be done responsibly and not mislead the public. I do feel that overall, social media has brought more pros than cons to the environmental cause, but there are always things we can do to improve its effectiveness and mitigate the unintended effects. I hope that through this post, I have managed to do so by highlighting some of these psychological influences. If we are more aware of these hidden psychological traps, we can learn to utilise social media to the fullest.
Hi Jia Wei,
My blog post this week was on a similar topic (effectiveness of social media in increasing environmental awareness), but you brought up really interesting points that I didn’t think of, so thank you for giving me a different perspective! I have to admit there were times when I might have been a “slacktivist”, I guess it was because I didn’t know how I could help so I just shared the posts, hoping to spread awareness. How do you think we can prevent or overcome “slacktivism”?
-Si Ying
Hi Si Ying,
Similarly, I have been guilty of being a “slactivist” at times. Like you said, we want to help but do not know how to besides sharing the post. That itself is nothing to feel bad for, since the intention is sincere and spreading awareness is always good. The true problem of this rise in “slacktivism” is that people stop at the stage of sharing because they feel like they did enough and they do not try harder. One way I think we can overcome “slacktivism” is by actually putting in more effort to find out if there is indeed something we can do to contribute more actively. I have been trying to remind myself that whenever I share a post to spread awareness, I should also immediately search up what are things I can do to contribute: perhaps there is a fundraising campaign or there is an online petition. By taking the extra effort, we can often learn that we can do more than just spread awareness.
Great to hear you also did a similar topic! Will be looking at your post to see your perspective on social media influences!
Hi Jia Wei!
It’s great you touched the area of “Slacktivism” I always wonder what happens after filling up the online petition forms and sometimes I do get updates via emails, most of the times the authors are asking for a better outreach to achieving the target petition count. I realise how my efforts are indeed little. Do you know what elements an online petition should possess to avoid slacktivism, or whether it is even possible to minimize Slacktivism?
Thoroughly enjoyed the post!
– Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Personally, I view the greatest flaw of online petition is how easy it is to add our signature and promptly forget about it. This is typically because we don’t hear or see the developments of this petition.
I believe an email update with something like “Everybody, we are still short of 1,000 online signatures and we need your help! Call a friend or family and explain to them our cause and let them know we are fighting for a change through this petition!” may spur people to take a more active role – from a “passive signature-signer” to an advocate or ambassador.
Further updates like “Thank you everybody, because of you we managed to change (issue) and now there are (examples of improvements) made!” can also inspire individuals and perhaps lead to them starting their own petitions to change an issue that is more close to home.