Pseudo-Activism: The Global Trend
There is a quote from Slavoj Žižek which goes like this:
The threat today is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to “be active”, to “participate”, to mask the Nothingness of what goes on. People intervene all the time, “doing something”; academics participate in meaningless “debates,” etc.; but the truly difficult thing is to step back, to withdraw from it all.
I first saw this quote from a senior of mine through social media. This made me wonder if I was guilty of the same more than I would have liked or cared for. The answer wasn’t that simple.
While looking for a proper definition of Pseudo-Activism, I came up with almost nothing that would serve as a satisfying definition. The one that came close was from a paper written by Jonathan Bishop which states: Pseudo-activism is a type of group-think, social loafing, or free-riding, where people join organizations based around activism, but their intentions are based more around a kind of empathy, where it is more important to be part of a group that believes than be part of a movement that does[1].
This definition might grasp the meaning behind the phrase but doesn’t fully explain what it entails. I’ve seen this too much among the “Social Media Generation” to not have a predisposed opinion about it. But that’s all this is. An opinion.
Pseudo-Activism for me is that fake unspoken necessity the society creates, the necessity of participation. Anyone familiar with social media, using it for a few hours daily having a few friends added has been a victim of this. Pseudo-activism doesn’t work in the sense that if you don’t participate, opine on topics having no relevance to your life, the society will go against you. Although as I am saying this, the recent Ayman Sadiq incident rings the contradiction alarm in my head.
Anyways, this phenomenon is something a person builds in their minds. They feel they might get left out of the race towards social acceptance. Social Media trends are pseudo-activity in disguise. Someone doing a social challenge doesn’t mean we have to do it too. It also doesn’t mean that we can’t do it. But some of us inherently builds up this pressure within us that they must follow in those footsteps.
This is such a personal matter that one can’t call out others as a victim. The diagnosis of pseudo-activism must happen internally. Perspective makes this a very fickle disease to pinpoint as Pseudo-Activism can easily turn to intentional social engagement.
I’m going out on a limb here, calling it a disease. Because for me, this is what it was. Life under quarantine made it more glaringly obvious for me.
Calling 2020, eventful would be an oversimplification. Starting from the ongoing pandemic, the BLM movement to the Pay Up protests of Bangladesh, we’ve seen too much in just 6 months. That too, with more time in our hands, less work to engage ourselves in and greater social engagement on the internet, the toll of this has been life-threatening for many.
On top of that, Pseudo-activism made things worse. Anyone not speaking up publicly about the problems of the world apparently doesn’t deserve to have a voice. Anyone speaking up too much is just pretentious. Actually doing something for the community publicly is bragging and secretly helping out just matter having no social exposure. Public support of global affairs is cool but doing the same for friends in their ventures is tainting their social image.
Social media itself has become toxic and Pseudo-Activity works as an injector of that poison. The rise of mental health problems shouldn’t be much of a surprise. People nowadays can’t handle their family environments despite this environment being the only real, worldly, non-virtual connection they have.
For many, the escape from pseudo-activism is not engaging in social media at all but doing that has become almost impossible as in current times almost everything has been integrated there. And the environment here has become such that it wrings out your opinion for the world to compliment or criticize upon.
What we maybe don’t understand is that the people speaking up aren’t the majority. We think whatever is being said on the internet is the peoples’ opinion but that’s not the case. Very few people speak up and they are the ones pushing their opinions. Most of them are borderline extremists instead of activists.
It has reached a point where recently I stumbled upon a post where a clinically depressed person felt hesitant to open up after seeing another post about depression just because he couldn’t relate to the problems stated there.
It’s not something we can solve overnight, none of the present world problems are. There might not even be a solution. Because pseudo-activity isn’t the same for everyone. Some might loathe it while for others it might be an encouragement to become active and come out of their antisocial lives.
It is reducible to an extent. But only if people build up a perspective that is theirs and not based on other’s preferences and then STICK to it.
With the changing minds of the volatile demographic, a person who has a solid belief or perspective is the most controversial. Which brings me to my next point, we need to be more tolerable to what we see. We don’t have to push someone or change ourselves to be socially accepted. Even if you do something grossly unacceptable, the people who truly care about you will remain the same. Even a murderer’s parents will always love their son. We can’t force someone or shame someone who doesn’t agree with us. We don’t have the right.
As for activism, things will be a lot simpler for you if you just be active in what YOU want. Do things that align with your intentions, not under social pressure. You want to post about your personal lives, do without hesitation. You want to contribute for the poor, do so because you want to and if you can afford to. Not because your friends are doing it. Supporting a movement? Fantastic. But don’t say something online and act the opposite in real life.
I too am guilty of Pseudo-Activism. I am not proud of it but I do acknowledge it because through this I was able to come to this realization. I may not yet be fully immune to it but I’ll keep trying, that’s for sure.
I don’t want to, but I know I have to clarify that all this was just my opinion, things like these can’t be generalized. So hope you read it with an open mind.
[1] Bishop, Jonathan. (2014). My Click is My Bond: The Role of Contracts, Social Proof, and Gamification for Sysops to Reduce Pseudo-Activism and Internet Trolling. 10.4018/978–1–4666–5071–8.ch001.
