Digital Dissenter

Human beings are a very fickle bunch. And we are becoming increasingly so with the advent of social networking and social media and the growing need to construct and maintain our online personas. It is our preoccupation with image and social profiles that acts as quite a considerable barrier when it comes to getting people to do something.

Just like no one wants to be the first to arrive at a party, no one wants to be the first, or only person to show up at a protest. This is where the notion of mob-mentality comes into successful digital activism.


Causes gain momentum when human interconnections are successfully used. If you’ve ever created a Facebook group you’ll know what I’m getting at. There’s no use creating a group and just hoping that people with similar interests will stumble upon it.

For example, two days ago I created a Facebook page for the local SPCA in an effort to create a platform that would accelerate the adoption process for animals currently looking for homes. After creating the group I recommended it to the people on my friends list who I know to be animal lovers. But of course, not everyone on my friends list would be interested – not even all of those few who I identified as animal lovers.

Of those who did accept the suggestion to like the page, they in turn shared the page with their friends and so on until the group had over 60 new members within the first day. There are people who like the page who I have never met in my life before. But such is the beauty of the momentum that online causes can gain by virtue of human connections.

The numbers also started to increase exponentially once there was a reasonable base of people. As with party invitations, the same goes for groups/causes: people like to see who’s going to be there and who they’re associating themselves with before adding the event or group to their cumulative social profile. The more people already involved, the more likely the person is to want to join the party, so to say. Fear of missing out is a great motivator.

But now the number of people who RSVP to your event on Facebook doesn’t necessarily translate to the number of people who will actually show up. Social media may be social, but it’s still relatively impersonal. The mobile phone however, is a great means of actually mobilising the masses that one can accumulate for one’s cause via social media. Receiving an SMS that tells you exactly where to be and when to be there is somewhat more likely to get you off your couch than simply clicking on a ‘yes’ button to a RSVP over a month ago.

With the steady rise of mobile media the idea of “smart-mobs” has gained momentum. Handsets that are enabled with internet access and numerous social networking features provide a new and unprecedented way in which to contact a vast range of people instantly and where they are. We all carry our cellphones in our pockets or in our handbags, and the majority of us have our phones on all day, everyday.

Groups around the world are increasingly harnessing the potential of mobile phones and technology to mobilise diverse groups of people instantaneously, in diverse locations. The mobile phone has been hailed as the seventh mass media, and it has all the capacities of traditional mass media but with the added benefits of being both personal and interactive.

It is the personal touch that provides that little bit of extra momentum that pushes over the first domino. There could be millions of people motivated in support of a cause, ready and rearing to go. But everyone could very well stay waiting unless there is something that gives them a little nudge. While there are those few radicals who will jump on a soapbox, rip their clothes off or chain themselves to a building for a cause – the majority of us find comfort in numbers. Thus it is vital for a successful campaign to ensure that its supporters know that they are supported.

So create groups and events online, gain a following, let it snowball, but ensure that you have a means to translate that online momentum into real action. The last thing you want is to be left as the only naked activist chaining yourself to KFC.