Slacktivism*

*i did not coin this term.

The "campaign" to change your Facebook profile picture to "raise awareness about child abuse" is incredibly flawed/pointless for the following reasons...

1. It's not actually connected to a real cause http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2010/12/05/cartoon-characters-on-facebook-is-the-facebook-cartoon-campaign-a-hoax/ (via Wendy Chandler)

2. Raise your hand if you didn't already know child abuse existed - the one guy raising his hand was born and raised in a cave on a desert island isolated from civilization...and he doesn't have a Facebook account anyway.

3. If you want to change your profile picture, fine...just don't congratulate yourself on making the world a better place until you've actually done something tangible for abused kids. Those children don't care that you changed your profile picture until that act is accompanied with real action.

4. Social media is a fantastic tool for effecting some real change for a cause. This "campaign" does not qualify in the least for that category.

This isn't the first and won't be the last instance of slacktivism gone pointless. i'd just encourage everyone (myself included) to be discerning and intentional when it comes to real issues that need real action, before we jump on any bandwagons.