Generally, I'll have a read of these almost-essay-long posts to find that a majority of them are negative feedback and opinions people have of a company or public figure. One post I saw late last year was a photograph taken of a salad from a well-known American supermarket. This wasn't any ordinary salad, there was a lovely, slimy frog sitting in the sealed bag (view image here) and the buyer felt it appropiate to upload this photo onto the supermarkets official Facebook page for all the world to see. Obiovusly, they succeeded if I, a regular girl from Australia, came across the image on my News Feed.
Some may decide that the author of this image is a "cultural jammer" made popular by Mark Dery. Culture jamming is defined as "a form of resistance to the hegemony of popular culture, based on the ideas of guerrilla communication and the detournement of popular icons and ideas" (Dery, M 2013). Basically, the person who uploaded this particular image may have done it purely to see is it would go viral because it's out of the norm or I could be completly wrong.. Maybe they wanted to complain to the supermarket and just decided to approach it over Facebook.
Sivitanides and Shah (2011) call this "Anti-brand Consumer Activism" and explain that "there has been a growing resistance towards certain brands and corporate globalisation" evident on digital technologies where anti-brand profiles, public posts and webpage communities have been made and numbers can increase dramatically in a short amount of time (2011).
Digital Activism has become such a popular medium for the average person to voice their opinion. However, for many that face social disadvantages, such as those living in developing countries or remote or rural areas, are unable to participate in digital activism as the cost and quality of their internet connection is not available to them (Sivitanides & Shah, 2011).
Although I am not yet convinced that Digital Activism is the right way to go about voicing an opinion, it saddens me that people living in disadvantaged areas of the world do not have the same options as those living in developed countries. In saying that, whatever is written about certain issues, companies or a public figure needs to be published with thought. I'm no therapist, but I would suggest to think twice about what you write because you never know what is going to go viral.
I'm sure that having a frog welcome you to your salad was as much of a surprise to the victim as the amount of views the image received after being uploaded.
References:
Image: http://www.meta-activism.org/2011/06/global-digital-activism-data-set-our-sources/ <viewed Dec 7 2013>
Dery, M, 2013, Shovelware, http://markdery.com/?page_id=130 <viewed Dec 7 2013>
Sivitanides, M & Shah, V 2011, The era of digital activism.
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