Breast Cancer Slacktivism

Last week I noticed my friend had posted a weird status on facebook. I had seen someone else post it, so I assumed they had clicked on some bad site and it was auto-posting to their status without their knowledge. I commented and said that. I got this message in response: 

Ok, how in any way does this raise awareness for breast cancer??? It doesn’t! The status that you’re supposed to post doesn’t mention breast cancer, and the message you receive if you comment on it doesn’t say anything other than “continue the game for breast cancer awareness.” 

This is slacktivism at it’s finest, and I hesitate to use that word. Even while people denounced #BringBackOurGirls as slacktivism for not producing any tangible results, it did raise actual awareness for the issue—people knew what was happening. This status doesn't even attempt to explain what is happening until you "fall victim" to it by commenting or liking it. 

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge also faced allegations of slacktivism, yet it is anything but. It encouraged a lot of people to actually learn about ALS. It raised $115 million in 6 weeks. And it may have helped scientists find a legitimate breakthrough in not just ALS but a host of other diseases. These nice things happened because (1) it was fun to watch celebrities dumping buckets of water on their heads, and (2) it said “do this ridiculous thing OR DONATE MONEY.” That last part is crucial. 

Back to the breast cancer status. It doesn’t encourage people to donate. It doesn’t encourage people to learn about the disease. It doesn't even raise awareness, which is the least it could do. It doesn’t do anything helpful. What it DOES do is guilt people into reposting it, for fear of being anti-fun or anti-breast cancer. And that’s why responses like this usually tend to take people back:

If you take “for breast cancer awareness” out of the original facebook post, it’s just a social media game. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! It’s social media, have fun with it. But don’t claim it supports breast cancer when it really doesn’t. 

Here’s a status that actually raises awareness for Breast Cancer:

Actually, the only way I think this status may raise awareness of breast cancer is that it gets a small percentage of people angry enough that they make their own post about how it raises awareness. I guess that's technically true, but it doesn't sit right with me. 

Feel free to disagree (and explain why)!