In a post a few weeks ago, Mary started us down the path of “Ok, all this chatter about digital this and activism that. What constitutes digital activism anyway?” Obviously we’ve got to start thinking about this, or else MAP has no reason to exist, so let’s keep at it. Mary said, very rightly so:
“For digital activism to be a new field, the addition of digital technology to activism practice must be a change of kind not just degree.”
Are we creating a different type of activism is the question we have in front of us.
I want to push this discussion further, because I think there’s some good stuff nestled in this concept of degree vs kind.
If we think about it simply, most uses of digital technologies are amplifying existing processes:
- I can now reach 1000 people on Twitter with my 140 characters rather than the 50 I had on my email list serve.
- Friends of friends on Facebook can now see my posting, and can pass it along with the click of a mouse, rather than just my friends viewing something static.
- Geomapping technologies can now put me on my street, rather than in my by neighborhood.
And the examples go on. But I want to argue that, in fact, by increasing the degree of many of these actions, a new kind is often being created.
For the full post – and my really awesome napkins drawings – head over to the MAP Blog.
