E-petitions

[narikel]

One of the many reasons that I am often absent on Facebook is the presence of "Facebook Causes." I never sign these internet petitions, regardless if they are to oppose child rape in South Africa, wish Oprah a happy birthday, encourage some celebrity to get naked on camera, or fight world hunger. They irk me, not only from the endless barrage of

Comments

[fiore42]

Amen to that. I suspect most public cause-driven activity exists mainly to make people feel good about themselves. On one hand, this caused me to adopt a neutral stance of epistimological uncertainty, but on the other hand, I think it just makes me feel good to picture myself holdin a coffee mug, wearing a corderoy jacket, with a skeptical professorial expression.

That said, when I just adopted a stance of declining everything but friend requests, and blocking anything I could, things became much more pleasant. God knows what we'll be using in 2015, but I'm glad to have something that makes it easy to keep in touch with a somewhat... Ah... distributed group.

[narikel]

I can understand how people might like the feeling of doing something, however small, to "help out" if they feel overwhelmed about an issue. I just feel the old, much touted "write your congressman" method seems infinitely more effective, despite modern perceptions that congressman get too much mail to read, or simply don't care. Should the issue in question not be solved by congress (as many aren't), you could submit an editorial to a newspaper, or something along those lines.

Even if writing a letter yourself is too much a task, I couldn't see why 5, or even 10, of those e-petition signers could coauthor a short essay of their views. Even if only a handful of letters came about instead of an e-petition of several 10s of thousands of signees, I can see them being 10 times more effective in changing public thought.

[flyonawndshield]

I've nearly quit facebook entirely. I find that it just makes me sad.

I really like that snopes bit, especially because they gave me a new and wonderful term... slactivism. It's brilliant and so so apt.