Adding a signature to an e-petition or sharing a post to support a cause on Facebook has become second nature to us, and they fill our news feeds. The internet and social media has made it incredibly easy to create a noise.
But does the sharing and e-signing actually make a difference? Was activism more effective in ‘simpler times’? Google something like the anti-conscription rallies in Melbourne during World War I, or the petition by women wanting the right to vote. This was activism on a scale we don’t see any more, and yet we’re more aware and there’s no shortage of people. So has social media made our activism lazier? Were we simply more bored ‘back in the day’ and staged large protests? Is social media both the best thing and the worst thing when it comes to effective activism?