#keepsydneyopen

(city vision, 2012)

In the past, if you felt strongly enough about an issue, cared enough, you got off your bum and did something about it, joined a movement, attended a protest. Today, we can be involved with just a click of a button, but do we click and forget? And the question is asked, again and again, activism or slacktivism? It has been argued that this type of activism or ‘subactivism’ should still be viewed as important no matter how frivolous it appears (Bakardjieva, 2009, p. 103), although this view can be hard to swallow at times. 

(Nine, 2016)

In 2014, in a bid to decrease alcohol fuelled violence, Sydney introduced 1.30am lockout laws for pubs and clubs in Kings Cross and the CBD (Nine, 2016). With Casinos unaffected by the lockout laws, Premier Mike Baird received backlash that new laws would not only kill off the city’s vibrant nightlife but also the local music scene. The response: the Keep Sydney Open campaign and petition.  The petition currently has 54,109 signatures and Keep Sydney Open have held a number of rallys, including one in February, attracting approximately 5000 people (police estimation) (Triple J, 2016) and another in October with approximately 4000 people attending (ABC News, 2016). These numbers are a far cry from the 54,000 that have signed the petition. Does that give less validity to the petition? No, I don’t think so. In the age of technology we are more informed than ever before and have the ability to be more engaged, regardless of our physical environment (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore, 2006). With these types of laws being introduced into our major cities, this was much more than just a Sydney issue, and the online environment allowed anyone, from anywhere, to engage in the situation (ABC News, 2016).

As Morozov has pointed out, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are prodominately for entertainment purposes (Gerbaudo, 2012), but just as the business world has begun to adopt the platforms, so too have activists. 

A few years ago I came across a petition with Change.org, which was advertised on Facebook regarding the NBN and how it would be delivered to homes, fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibe to the home (FTTH). At the time, we owned a telecommunications service provider company and this was a big issue within our industry, so I signed the petition. Since then I have received regular emails from Change.org regarding a variety of different matters, none of which have been relevant to me, and they have been discarded. But it does make me wonder, does everyone else discard them? I’m not really sure how I feel about online petitions and their validity now.

ABC News, 2016, Keep Sydney Open: Thousands attend protest against lockout laws, Jimmy Barnes backs campaign,  viewed 16 January 2016 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-09/lockout-laws-rally-sydney-130am/7916524>

ABC News, 2016, ‘Queensland to introduce the country's toughest lockout laws’ viewed 15 January 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/brisbane-lockouts-pass/7175962>

Bakardjieva, M 2009, 'Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet', Information Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 91-104.

Charlie Brown image, ‘Technology and Social Causes- Activism or "Clicktivism"?’ 2012, viewed 15 January 2017, <http://kalw.org/post/technology-and-social-causes-activism-or-clicktivism#stream/0>

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R.J. (2006). "Alone Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Games." Proceedings of CHI 2006, pp.407-416

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto, London.