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Why Outrage Doesn’t Usually Result in Action.
Outrage is easy but doing something effective takes time and effort.
It’s far easier to sit back, click ‘like’ or ‘forward’ on sad stories or write a scathing comment on a report about an injustice. Further to that, ‘liking’ something or commenting on an atrocity to condemn it can actually give people a sense of achievement. They feel like they’ve done something so there’s a sense of fulfillment once they’ve hit ‘forward’ or clicked ‘like’.
If people have that sense of fulfillment from forwarding or commenting, they’ve probably lost any further impetus to do something that actually might generate change. (And then X-factor comes on and the issue, along with the outrage is forgotten). It’s summed up brilliantly in an article called ‘True justice isn’t just outrage/Relevant Magazine:
We call this slacktivism-and what a contrast it is from the strategic, organized activism that was the hallmark of the civil rights and suffrage movements. Instead of expressing our indignation in constructive ways, we assemble a semi-intelligent thought about the U.S. travel ban or hit “like” on the odd post from Amnesty International and leave it at that. Millions of us will share charitable campaign posts, yet only a slim percentage will actually donate¹
