The Facebook Phenomenon

Raising Awareness - A Half-Assed Approach to Curing the World's Ills

White.  Not that it's any of your business.
Yellow... but it wasn't when I bought it!
Black and lacy.  Rawr!
Non-existent.  Woooooot!

Thanks to Facebook and the tireless efforts of women across America typing fiercely on their keyboards to update their status with the color of their bra, breast cancer has been eradicated.  Okay, maybe not, but at least the Susan G. Komen Foundation and other breast cancer-related charities took in record numbers of donations.  Well, that's not entirely accurate.  Let's just say all those status updates, all those little black letters sent into cyberspace, at least raised awareness... of bras.

It's what I call the Facebook Phenomenon:  The ability of a social networking site to make otherwise apathetic people feel like they care about a cause and are doing something to help.  Every one of those little status updates makes one a member of A Movement, however brief and inefficient said movement is, and satisfies the ego temporarily.  "Raising awareness" is the typical phrase used to justify the lemming behavior of the Facebook activist.

Raising awareness can be an important first step toward advocacy of any kind, as you can't work to fix a problem you're unaware of.  However, "raising awareness" is only effective when it actually educates people and gives them a reason to care about the cause.  This never actually occurs in Facebook memes.

"Red polka dots zomg!!!!111!!!!!1!!" versus "Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed non-skin cancer in women.  The older you are, the higher your risk.  Be sure to schedule a mammogram!"  Guess which one the copy/paste messages sent to women encouraged them to post?

The breast cancer thing is gone and done with, left as quickly as it arrived.  It was fun for a little while.  It made a brief comeback when women were encouraged to post where they like to put their purse (which raised awareness of sexual innuendos and how perverted our friends can be, yet again missing the entire "breast cancer awareness" mark).  But where one fad takes leave, another must take it's place.  Let's now say hello to cartoon characters.  I mean, child abuse.

Another Facebook Failure

The basic status reads something like this:  "Help join the fight against child abuse!  Change your profile picture to your favorite cartoon from your childhood!  Copy and paste this status.  The goal is not to see a single human face through December 6."

Let's ignore the fact that Child Abuse Awareness month is April and that cartoons from my generation were primarily violent, which of course would be counter-productive.

Let's focus instead on how much time people spent Googling images of cartoon characters instead of Googling local child abuse advocacy groups; let's focus on how many conversations revolved around the merits of Ren & Stimpy and how cartoons have changed since we were young instead of how many conversations revolved around signs of abuse and who to call if you suspect someone you know is being abused.  Let's focus on the omission of facts and statistics, but the addition of several YouTube videos of cartoons from the 80s.

Today, Child Abuse.  Tomorrow... Who Knows?

The five-minute humanitarian on Facebook knows deep down that their efforts are accomplishing absolutely nothing.  Some of them are even embarrassed, changing their pictures so they're not left out but quickly justifying it with lame excuses when rational people question the merits of Facebook fads and their ability to actually make a difference.

Some of them are even more annoying, as this anonymous poster can illustrate quite well:  I think that it helps raise awareness to the cause and that people can make a difference. I have contributed, I have worked with children in an emergency abuse and neglect shelter, and I am now a CPS worker (how many people will hate me solely because of that?), and I still proudly put that as my status to raise awareness and inform others-the sense of nostalgia had not really crossed my mind.  In this case, this handy little fad gave this person a soap box upon which to stand and raise awareness of... well, herself.  I'd love to go on about the blatant ego stroking ("I expect to be hated for all my tireless efforts"; "Oh, I didn't even realize this hinted at nostalgia... ... ...") but that's a whole different blog.

So, the question is:  How many times can we replace the phrases "breast cancer" and "child abuse" with other issues before people realize that it really doesn't matter, and that they'll return to blissful ignorance once again when the Facebook updates run their courses?  How many people will be gung-ho about the temporarily-hot button issue for a week before returning to posting YouTube music videos and pictures of their pets?

If you didn't care before, posting a picture of Fred Flintstone or Jem isn't going to suddenly make you care now.  But of course, you care about everything, right?  Just need that little reminder once in a while to make sure everyone knows.  The Facebook Phenomenon will be there for you with the next fad, ready to pat you on the back and say, "You done good, kid."  I wonder what it will be.