The Dark Side of the Internet — spamtivism as well as slacktivism

Pardon the neologism in the header. I'll jump right in to explaning it.

I think most readers know what slacktivism is. Sierra Club, ACLU or whomever, sends you an e-mail alert (or 12, especially if it's an enviro group — more on that below, too). It often has your "suggested" comment for your Member of Congress, EPA Administrator or whomever already written for you.

Ditto on the occasional suggestion to call your Member of Congress — your talking points are already written out in the e-mail alert.

Now, let's be honest.

How often do you edit that "suggested" text?

If you're like me, the answer is "rarely," at best.

And, per my previous blog post in this thread, you KNOW that Congressional staffers — or, speaking of environmental issues, from which I am most familiar with this — staff for EPA, U.S. Forest Service, BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service, etc., quickly become familiar with the pre-written text and so quickly start ignoring copycat e-mails.

So, slacktivism strikes out. And, if you're honest, you probably know that, too.

But, IMO, slacktivism is only part of the problem.

The base problem is "spamtivism."

Because such e-mail alerts make slacktivism easy, they also make it easy for nonprofits to see how easily you follow through on such slacktivist actions.

Why do you think Sierra Club, etc, send you "slacktivism confirmation" emails? It's a bit of a psychological carrot. And, it's the perfect way to say:

Now that you've sent that email, can you click this new link and send us $20 while you're at it?

And that, my friends, is "spamtivism."

I mention Sierra because enviros in general and Gang Green groups in particular are BAD about this.

They were bad about this back in the days of paper mailings, in the process, with the mounds of paper generated, undercutting some of their environmental cred.

They're also good at manufacturing and recycling crises.

For instance, since the start of the year, I've gotten more than half a dozen activism emails about uranium mining in the Grand Canyon. Realistically, is that worry (albeit a serious one) any closer to reality than it was four months ago?

You know that answer too.

So, why?

Gang Green will probably say, if it says anything, that this is because it loses so many members of its groups every year.

Ex-members will respond that they quit because of the bombardment, and seeing through the bombardment.

Unfortunately, though not as much, I think smaller enviro groups are creeping further down the spamtivism path.