Social Media Activists: Analyzing the Relationship between Online Activism and Offline Attitudes and Behaviors
Keywords:
Slacktivism, social capital, digital activism, cosmopolitanismAbstract
Token support for social causes has been increasingly studied and commented on in recent years. Campaigns such as the Livestrong bracelet, the pink breast cancer ribbons, the KONY 2012 video, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and the Facebook profile picture modifications for marriage equality and support for Paris after the 2015 terrorist attacks have been coined “slacktivism” and those who engage in these activities “slacktivists,” however, little empirical research has been done on the topic. This research explores the relationship so-called slacktivism, operationalized as various social media activities, has on social capital, cosmopolitan attitudes, and other forms of social cause engagement activities. The results suggest that the effects on social capital and cosmopolitanism are not significant. However, the strong relationship between slacktivism and other, “traditional,” forms of activism suggest that “slacktivist” may be an ill-fitting name for individuals engaged in this social cause engagement.
References
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Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Bal, A. S., Archer-Brown, C., Robson, K., & Hall, D. E. (2013). Do good, goes bad, gets ugly: Kony 2012. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(2), 202-208. doi:10.1002/pa.1475
Beaudoin, C. E., & Tao, C. (2007). Benefiting from social capital in online support groups: An empirical study of cancer patients. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 587-590. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9986
Beck, U., & Sznaider, N. (2006). Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: A research agenda. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(1), 1-23. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2006.00091.x
Benson, L., Harkavy, I., & Puckett, J. (2000). An implementation revolution as a strategy for fulfilling the democratic promise of university-community partnerships: PennWest Philadelphia as an experiment in progress. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 29, (24), 24–45.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. 241-258. New York: Greenwood.
Brancati, D. (2014). The determinants of US public opinion towards democracy promotion. Political Behavior, 36(4), 705-730. doi:10.1007/s11109-013-9256-y
Brigham, M. P., & Noland, A. K. (2014). Making humanitarian advocacy less "abstract and remote": Kony 2012's representation of an agent-centered approach. Florida Communication Journal, 42(2), 51-67.
Budish, R. H. (2012). Click to change: Optimism despite online activism’s unmet expectations. Emory International Law Review, 26(2), 745-772.
Center for Social Impact Communication, Georgetown University (2011). “Dynamics of Cause Engagement—Final Report,” Education.
Davis, J. (2011). Cause marketing: Moving beyond corporate slacktivism. Retrieved from http://evidencebasedmarketing.net/cause-marketing-moving-beyond-corporate-slacktivism/.
Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook ‘‘friends:’’ social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143–1168.
Gardner, J. W. (1998, February 10). Remarks to the Campus Compact Strategic Planning Committee, San Francisco.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6),1360–1380.
Halpern, D. (2005). Social capital. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Hofer, M., & Aubert, V. (2013). Perceived bridging and bonding social capital on Twitter: Differentiating between followers and followees. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2134-2142. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.038
Holton, R. J. (2002). Cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitanisms? The Universal Races Congress of 1911. Global Networks, 2(2), 153.
Johnston, K., Tanner, M., Lalla, N., & Kawalski, D. (2013). Social capital: The benefit of facebook ‘friends’. Behaviour & Information Technology, 32(1), 24-36. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2010.550063
Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukophadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?American Psychologist, 53(9), 1017-1031. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.53.9.1017
Kristofferson, K., White, K., & Peloza, J. (2013). The nature of slacktivism: How the social observability of an initial act of token support affects subsequent prosocial action. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(6), 1149-1166. doi:10.1086/674137
Lautenschlager, L., & Smith, C. (2007). Beliefs, knowledge, and values held by inner-city youth about gardening, nutrition, and cooking. Agriculture and Human Values, 24(2), 245-258.
Lee, E., Kim, Y.K., Ahn, J. (2014). How do people use Facebook features to manage social capital? Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 440-445.
Lee, Y. H., & Hsieh, G. (2013). Does slacktivism hurt activism?: The effects of moral balancing and consistency in online activism. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13). ACM, New York, NY, 811-820. DOI=10.1145/2470654.2470770 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2470654.2470770
Lim, M. (2013). Many clicks but little sticks: Social media activism in Indonesia. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43(4), 636-657. doi:10.1080/00472336.2013.769386
McEwan, B., & Sobre-Denton, M. (2011). Virtual cosmopolitanism: Constructing third cultures and transmitting social and cultural capital through social media. Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, 4(4), 252-258. doi:10.1080/17513057.2011.598044
Morozov, E. (2009, May 19). The brave new world of slacktivism. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/05/19/the-brave-new-world-of-slacktivism/
Muzaffar, H., Chapman-Novakofski, K., Castelli, D.M., Scherer, J.A. The HOT (Healthy Outcome for Teens) project. Using a web-based medium to influence attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention for obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention. Appetite 72, 82–89, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2013.09.024.
Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-266. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/259373
Ostrander, S. (2004). Democracy, civic participation, and the university: A comparative study of civic engagement on five campuses. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33, 74–93.
Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1 -24.
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.
Putnam R.D. (1995). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy. 6(1):65-78.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rhodes, R.E., Macdonald, H.M., & McKay, H.A. (2006). Predicting physical activity intention and behaviour among children in a longitudinal sample. Social Science & Medicine, 62(12), 3146-3156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.051.
Rotman, D. Vieweg, S, Yardi, S., Chi, E., Preece, J., Shneiderman, B., Pirolli, P., & Glaisyer, T. (2011). From slacktivism to activism: Participatory culture in the age of social media. In CHI '11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '11). ACM, New York, NY, 819-822. DOI=10.1145/1979742.1979543
Sajuria, J., vanHeerde-Hudson, J., Hudson, D., Dasandi, N., & Theocharis, Y. (2015). Tweeting alone? an analysis of bridging and bonding social capital in online networks. American Politics Research, 43(4), 708-738. doi:10.1177/1532673X14557942
Saran, A., & Kalliny, M. (2012). Cosmopolitanism: Concept and measurement. Journal of Global Marketing, 25(5), 282-291. doi:10.1080/08911762.2012.779196
Saxton, G. D., & Wang, L. (2014). The social network effect: The determinants of giving through social media. Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(5), 850-868. doi:10.1177/0899764013485159
Schumann, S., & Klein, O. (2015). Substitute or stepping stone? Assessing the impact of low-threshold online collective actions on offline participation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(3), 308-322. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2084
Schneider, J. A. (2007). Connections and disconnections between civic engagement and social capital in community-based nonprofits. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(4), 572-597. doi:10.1177/0899764006297236
Steinfield, C., Ellison, N., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(6), 434-445.
Strand, T. (2009). The making of a new cosmopolitanism. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(2), 229-242. doi:- 10.1007/s11217-009-9161-3
Warren, A. M., Sulaiman, A., & Jaafar, N. I. (2015). Understanding civic engagement behaviour on Facebook from a social capital theory perspective. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(2), 163-175. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2014.934290
Wellman, B., Quan-Haase, A., Witte, J., & Hampton, K. (2001). Does the internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital? Social networks, participation, and community commitment. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 436-455. doi:10.1177/00027640121957286
Williams, D. (2006). On and off the ‘net: Scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2),
White, K., & Peloza, J. (2009). Self-benefit versus other-benefit marketing appeals: Their effectiveness in generating charitable support. Journal of Marketing, 73(4),109–24.
Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Bal, A. S., Archer-Brown, C., Robson, K., & Hall, D. E. (2013). Do good, goes bad, gets ugly: Kony 2012. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(2), 202-208. doi:10.1002/pa.1475
Beaudoin, C. E., & Tao, C. (2007). Benefiting from social capital in online support groups: An empirical study of cancer patients. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 587-590. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9986
Beck, U., & Sznaider, N. (2006). Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: A research agenda. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(1), 1-23. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2006.00091.x
Benson, L., Harkavy, I., & Puckett, J. (2000). An implementation revolution as a strategy for fulfilling the democratic promise of university-community partnerships: PennWest Philadelphia as an experiment in progress. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 29, (24), 24–45.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. 241-258. New York: Greenwood.
Brancati, D. (2014). The determinants of US public opinion towards democracy promotion. Political Behavior, 36(4), 705-730. doi:10.1007/s11109-013-9256-y
Brigham, M. P., & Noland, A. K. (2014). Making humanitarian advocacy less "abstract and remote": Kony 2012's representation of an agent-centered approach. Florida Communication Journal, 42(2), 51-67.
Budish, R. H. (2012). Click to change: Optimism despite online activism’s unmet expectations. Emory International Law Review, 26(2), 745-772.
Center for Social Impact Communication, Georgetown University (2011). “Dynamics of Cause Engagement—Final Report,” Education.
Davis, J. (2011). Cause marketing: Moving beyond corporate slacktivism. Retrieved from http://evidencebasedmarketing.net/cause-marketing-moving-beyond-corporate-slacktivism/.
Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook ‘‘friends:’’ social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143–1168.
Gardner, J. W. (1998, February 10). Remarks to the Campus Compact Strategic Planning Committee, San Francisco.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6),1360–1380.
Halpern, D. (2005). Social capital. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Hofer, M., & Aubert, V. (2013). Perceived bridging and bonding social capital on Twitter: Differentiating between followers and followees. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2134-2142. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.038
Holton, R. J. (2002). Cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitanisms? The Universal Races Congress of 1911. Global Networks, 2(2), 153.
Johnston, K., Tanner, M., Lalla, N., & Kawalski, D. (2013). Social capital: The benefit of facebook ‘friends’. Behaviour & Information Technology, 32(1), 24-36. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2010.550063
Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukophadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?American Psychologist, 53(9), 1017-1031. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.53.9.1017
Kristofferson, K., White, K., & Peloza, J. (2013). The nature of slacktivism: How the social observability of an initial act of token support affects subsequent prosocial action. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(6), 1149-1166. doi:10.1086/674137
Lautenschlager, L., & Smith, C. (2007). Beliefs, knowledge, and values held by inner-city youth about gardening, nutrition, and cooking. Agriculture and Human Values, 24(2), 245-258.
Lee, E., Kim, Y.K., Ahn, J. (2014). How do people use Facebook features to manage social capital? Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 440-445.
Lee, Y. H., & Hsieh, G. (2013). Does slacktivism hurt activism?: The effects of moral balancing and consistency in online activism. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13). ACM, New York, NY, 811-820. DOI=10.1145/2470654.2470770 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2470654.2470770
Lim, M. (2013). Many clicks but little sticks: Social media activism in Indonesia. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43(4), 636-657. doi:10.1080/00472336.2013.769386
McEwan, B., & Sobre-Denton, M. (2011). Virtual cosmopolitanism: Constructing third cultures and transmitting social and cultural capital through social media. Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, 4(4), 252-258. doi:10.1080/17513057.2011.598044
Morozov, E. (2009, May 19). The brave new world of slacktivism. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/05/19/the-brave-new-world-of-slacktivism/
Muzaffar, H., Chapman-Novakofski, K., Castelli, D.M., Scherer, J.A. The HOT (Healthy Outcome for Teens) project. Using a web-based medium to influence attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention for obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention. Appetite 72, 82–89, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2013.09.024.
Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-266. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/259373
Ostrander, S. (2004). Democracy, civic participation, and the university: A comparative study of civic engagement on five campuses. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33, 74–93.
Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1 -24.
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.
Putnam R.D. (1995). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy. 6(1):65-78.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rhodes, R.E., Macdonald, H.M., & McKay, H.A. (2006). Predicting physical activity intention and behaviour among children in a longitudinal sample. Social Science & Medicine, 62(12), 3146-3156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.051.
Rotman, D. Vieweg, S, Yardi, S., Chi, E., Preece, J., Shneiderman, B., Pirolli, P., & Glaisyer, T. (2011). From slacktivism to activism: Participatory culture in the age of social media. In CHI '11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '11). ACM, New York, NY, 819-822. DOI=10.1145/1979742.1979543
Sajuria, J., vanHeerde-Hudson, J., Hudson, D., Dasandi, N., & Theocharis, Y. (2015). Tweeting alone? an analysis of bridging and bonding social capital in online networks. American Politics Research, 43(4), 708-738. doi:10.1177/1532673X14557942
Saran, A., & Kalliny, M. (2012). Cosmopolitanism: Concept and measurement. Journal of Global Marketing, 25(5), 282-291. doi:10.1080/08911762.2012.779196
Saxton, G. D., & Wang, L. (2014). The social network effect: The determinants of giving through social media. Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(5), 850-868. doi:10.1177/0899764013485159
Schumann, S., & Klein, O. (2015). Substitute or stepping stone? Assessing the impact of low-threshold online collective actions on offline participation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(3), 308-322. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2084
Schneider, J. A. (2007). Connections and disconnections between civic engagement and social capital in community-based nonprofits. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(4), 572-597. doi:10.1177/0899764006297236
Steinfield, C., Ellison, N., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(6), 434-445.
Strand, T. (2009). The making of a new cosmopolitanism. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(2), 229-242. doi:- 10.1007/s11217-009-9161-3
Warren, A. M., Sulaiman, A., & Jaafar, N. I. (2015). Understanding civic engagement behaviour on Facebook from a social capital theory perspective. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(2), 163-175. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2014.934290
Wellman, B., Quan-Haase, A., Witte, J., & Hampton, K. (2001). Does the internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital? Social networks, participation, and community commitment. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 436-455. doi:10.1177/00027640121957286
Williams, D. (2006). On and off the ‘net: Scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2),
White, K., & Peloza, J. (2009). Self-benefit versus other-benefit marketing appeals: Their effectiveness in generating charitable support. Journal of Marketing, 73(4),109–24.
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