In this digital age, the act of hitting ‘repost’ or using a certain hashtag may give us that burst of dopamine and serotonin, but what are we actually accomplishing?
As the idea of Social Media Activism has taken root in the past few years, there were many people who have formed the opinion that activism on social media is, in and of itself, performative. There are others who believe that activism of any sort is better than nothing.
As Gretchen Brown explained in her 2021 Rewire article, performative activism occurs when people very loudly and publicly support something to make themselves feel good, often when that particular issue is trending.
Brown cites the Black Lives Matter movement over the past year and a half as an example of performative activism. After the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, there were protests, yes, but there were also hashtags trending, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #DefundThePolice.
An article featured in the Yale Daily News online publication describes the difficulties that come to light when one attempts to separate performative activists from genuine activists. The sharing of hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #DefundThePolice could represent a need to fit into the social sphere, or could represent a person attempting to get involved but not quite knowing where to start.
It must be recognized that, as brought up by Riley Martinez in The Daily Aztec, because of social media and the difficulties associated with sorting the performative ‘hashtaggers’ from the genuine activists, it is easier than ever to hit repost just to keep up appearances, instead of from a place of real concern.
