Two weeks ago I wrote a little opinion piece about changing the color of your Twitter avatar to show support for a cause. My wife and I don’t agree on everything, and when I spout off with something like this I try to keep her eyes from seeing this blog for a little while. For one reason or another she ran across it this evening and we had a little debate.
Now while she did somewhat agree with my stand, she still tried to inform me that there is some value in things like this. I thought she made some nice points so I asked her to write up a little of her view on this because I feel it’s important to present more than just one side to some situations.
An empty gesture is still a gesture.
While I agree that changing your avatar color produces no real change, I worry about discouraging small steps. In a world of such profound apathy I’m willing to forgive a few “bumper sticker” activists. A gesture like this can be likened to patting yourself on the back and most of the time I would agree. But who am I to set the charitable scale?
Out of all the people that did change their avatar, how many went further? Lets say out of 100 people, ten changed the color for the day; how many took the time to write a letter or donate time and money as you suggested? We all know it was far less. I say give your support to the causes that mean something to you no matter how small the gesture or charity. If we all walk the walk long enough it just might stick. It’s ok to practice.
I’m all for an open exchange of ideas, so if anyone else has something they would like to add, feel free to jump in to the comments section below.
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