The socially conscious 'slacktivist'!

 Slacktivism (sometimes slactivism or slackervism) is a term formed out of the words slacker and activism. The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist.

I have been wanting to write this for quite some time now. I am sure the more sensitive of you would want to say something as well. Of late, most of our social media timelines have been hit by these waves of activities, that request us to sign petitions, ask us to 'like' certain pages of some 'noble' endeavor and ohh well even in some bizarre cases change our display pictures. 

I have always wondered how Social Media influences every facet of our daily lives. Certainly a lot of it is beneficial but what do these Social Causes on the Internet  achieve? Well if I see rising dissent to this 'note' citing examples like the Anna Hazare revolution in India then I have have to ask you all to take a step back and look at the revolution carefully. Probably P.Sainath here is a better starting point. In a country like India where the access of internet is restricted to a fraction of the literate masses, do you really think the 'click' of a button would solve the burning issues that affect the under-privileged? 

I really hope the phenomenon cannot be attributed to the  instant 'gratification' that the Internet provides for the countless anonymous voices, which suddenly have a following. Probably it's the sudden urge of the lazy and impulsive internet surfer, who has time to kill and is not sure of what to do with it? Probably this creeps into every human being, giving him his '15 seconds of fame'  asking him to be part of something that is 'larger than life'?  

I guess the 'slactivist' feels that he needs to be recognized as a person in society who has a 'voice'. The idea of living in a shell of virtual reality might appeal to his conscience or probably gives him a sense of personal achievement. An achievement that arises out of the 'joy of clicking' or the 'joy of sharing a facebook post on social issues'. 

My only hope is that the next time I see some social issue, I'd rather lend my physical support than virtual support. Tweaking what Swami Vivekananda said , It is an insult to offer sympathy in the form of facebook to suffering people. What they need is hope and some help. It's alright if you can't do it, but just don't give them an illusion of which they are better of not having.

The Substitute

Sometimes, in days like today an old incident visits your otherwise vacant occipital penthouse. The trigger could be a scene you are watching from a movie, a dish that you are eating, a photo that you saw or perhaps this .  How often does one conjure up an anecdote with a web page of a player, whose only claim to fame is being a substitute and effecting a run out in the 2005 Ashes. I am sure, this would be one of those rare occassions. Well let me spit it out here. 

The incident occured once upon a dull and dreary day in the office, at around 4:00 P.M. My cubicle mate in those days, Prazy as he is known, wasn't around. I really wanted to do something and then out of the blue, I realized I could play a prank on somebody. A prank call maybe? I have done prank calls in my lifetime, a lot of them unsuccessful, but I wanted to erase that blemish and had to find the perfect sitting duck/guinea pig. After long and hard thinking I decided to call Anantha, a fellow cricket fan, who perhaps breathes cricket more than  some of the biggest fans I know. I call him from my office number. The unsuspecting chap picks the phone and all I say is "Hey there, can you tell me something about Gary Pratt".   Ah! I thought, one of the worst prank calls ever in life! Who in heavens name other than me can do this absolutely monumental blunder. Surprise Surprise, the voice on the other side of the phone prattles about the player so much so that the Wikipedia article would have been put to shame! I pose as an editor of a cricket magazine and ask the guy a few more questions. Not once did our Anantha ask me who I was. I had a question and he had the right answer. After that chat, I had to tell him who I was and I found myself in splits. Dont' worry if you don't!, it was just funny for me and for a change enligthening.That day a truth dawned on me. A fellow cricket fan is not a stranger and so nothing would be asked about him. You could be poles apart, but cricket would bind you together. What started out as a prank ended up being memory that was stored in the dark corners of an empty brain only to be recounted here. 

PS : Ananthasubramanian Narayanan is a die hard Cricket Fan, who in addition to being a cricket fan is also a Photographer(spams you with wedding photos). Before I say anything more, he is a writer at sportskeeda and also has this