THEORY connections
McLuhan also views media as a “world of total involvement in which everybody is so profoundly involved with everybody else” (61). Online activism is dependent on the intense involvement of internet viewers in a variety of causes. What might have been one person’s life work for a particular movement against warlords, or unequal wealth distribution, or in breast cancer awareness has now become available to any and all who want to participate. Users can also determine the level of their involvement, from signing an online pledge to picketing. McLuhan acknowledges the way in which media cultivates the constant dissemination of information; “as soon as information is acquired, it is very rapidly replaced by still newer information” (63).
This vast and unending overflow of information makes the internet an environment in which attention to certain social causes changes quite frequently, which can in part explain many peoples’ short attention spans and involvement in causes online. McLuhan reveals the way in which people who have used media have had to “shift [their] stress of attention from action to reaction” (63). As people are inundated with information—various causes pull for their attention and they are informed on the complexities of certain injustices—action is second to reaction. Huge amounts of constantly updated information can be paralyzing, which perhaps can explain why clicktivism is appealing to so many people who are unsure on how to engage with certain injustices.
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