Click Activism and the Sissy-Pants revolts of social networks
Sissy Pants internet users joining a new "cause" with each new coming week.
Social networks like Digg.com, Twitter and FaceBook sprung up in the twenty-first century and most people thought this was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most sites started out small and built up a huge user base who could yap till their heart was content.
Now years into the game, social network sites like Digg realize they need to make a buck and monetize the site. The user base revolts with the most ridiculous sissy-pants tactics like flooding Reddit links and "Do the right thing" posts. Users feel like they are some kind of "activists" because they have the power to ruin a site. We see this all the time on Twitter and Facebook as well.
It's ridiculous when you think of it because the service is free. They are acting as if they paid for a product like a car and the brakes don't work. Its the shame of our self-entitled generation who thinks everything should be handed out for free and they have complete say.
On another note, a good post about internet vigilantes can be read here. In summary, the author is making the point how click-activism gets out of hand and forms, unthinking lynch mobs. It's just too easy to join the bandwagon and go hunting. You're on the winning team and its some kind of fun game.
True activism takes courage, coherent long term thought and determination. True activism carries on for months and years. What you people are doing is just annoying and shows your ignorance. These vigilantes should think back to 1985 when you may have had enough money for one or two magazine subscriptions to get news.
Now we have so many wonderful tools and it's still not enough when a site needs to make money. Click activism is shameful because it's much too easy to accomplish. Some user floods the site with irrelevant posts and thinks he's done something great, but after a week or so he'll get tired of it and things will go back to normal. What did you accomplish really? If you don't like the site, leave it. If "what you want" is truly a niche product, then a new site will appear in due time and you can help it grow.
On the other hand, staying around and incessantly whining like a child who can't have ice-cream is pitiful. Capitalism is at work all around us. If you think Reddit is better, shut up, leave and go to Reddit. Digg will eventually loose audience and have to decide the necessary changes to bring in more users. But probably, it will go more like this: The sissies will leave and the site will enjoy a new audience who isn't controlled by their demands.