CSN: Real Change Happens Off-Line:
Internet activism is individualistic. It’s great for a sense of interconnectedness, but the Internet does not bind individuals in shared struggle the same as the face-to-face activism of the 1960s and ’70s did. It allows us to channel our individual power for good, but it stops there.
This is great for signing a petition to Congress or donating to a cause. But the real challenges in our society – the growing gap between rich and poor, the intransigence of racism and discrimination, the abuses from Iraq to Burma (Myanmar) – won’t politely go away with a few clicks of a mouse. Or even a million.
While the article reads a bit more like a call to action/press release for the sake of Sally Kohn’s Generation Change, her points are valid in that the internet, while creating a sense of connectedness and community, is individualistic at its core, especially in America. We don’t go to internet cafes or sit around with our computers and work together in the same room. We sit in our own homes, at our own desks, with no one around, and shout into the wind thinking that it’s going to make a difference.
Real change happens when folks step away from the computers and roll up their sleeves to get work done. It may not be as easy as signing an online petition or posting a blog, but it sure delivers more results for your efforts.
