The Instactivism Trap
By: Yann Costa
Tags: Climate Change, Activism, Responsibility, Fake News, Social Media

No, you’re not dreaming: Audi was forced to withdraw this ad, as well as to apologize to users who saw a sexual character in that little girl eating a banana.

Bunch of degenerates.

But it’s a good thing we’re talking about sports cars because they’ll help me answer the following question:

Why this outrage culture?

After doing some research, I found that this pattern can largely be explained by 1) virtue signaling, 2) our inability to question our beliefs, and 3) our search for meaning.

1.

Since the dawn of time, human beings have felt the need to affirm their identity through visual signals. Think of the native American who wears different feathers according to his role in the tribe. The modern lawyer, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit and tie, or the fifteen kilograms of jewelry hanging from the neck of your favorite rapper.

Even in our wildest imaginations, we automatically assign symbols to the characters we create. We wear Greek gods with attributes. Apollo displays his lyre while Athena presents her shield. James Bond drives an Aston Martin, while Albus Dumbledore exhibits his long white beard.

These signals are anchored in us. They help us to reveal who we are, through the values we represent.

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

There is nothing wrong with displaying one’s identity per se. However, it becomes a problem when you use symbols that you don’t actually embody, for your own self-interest.

It’s the guy who buys a sports car he can’t afford, just to take credit for a social class he doesn’t belong to. It is the person who instrumentalizes marriage, with the sole purpose of accessing certain privileges.

But it is also the ones who participate in a social movement to buy a clean conscience, while they sacrifice neither their time, work nor money for the sake of substantial progress. This attitude is sometimes referred to in the media as performative allyship. And yes, instactivism is so popular that it already has an official name.

In the same way that we buy Rolexes, Gucci bags, and Lamborghinis to signal our competence or success, today we join social movements to signal our moral superiority. This phenomenon is better known as virtue signaling.

2.

Over the years, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have accumulated more and more data about us. Thus, the more time passes, the more powerful their algorithms become. When applied to the field of marketing, these algorithms are fantastic: they allow advertisers to show the product you need, at the right time, with an amazing level of precision.

But these algorithms have never heard of ethics. And unlike us, they don’t act according to double standards. They operate in exactly the same way, regardless of the content involved. This means that social media sells you not only the products you like but also and above all the ideas that appeal to you.

Assuming that you form your beliefs based on what you see on the internet, social media lulls you forever into the beliefs that you already have at heart, reinforcing them even more. There is more and more content online to reaffirm that you are right. That you’ve got it all figured out, and that anyone who contradicts you is a bunch of jerks. This is what American activist Eli Pariser calls the filter bubble.

Do you ever wonder why people are so blind that they can’t see what you see? You’re absolutely right because they literally don’t see the same thing you do.

“We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented.” — Christof, The Truman Show

In addition, the degree of separation between you and people who disagree with you has increased with the advent of social media.

Before, when you disagreed with Mark, you’d see him there in front of you. You’d interpret every facial expression and every movement. At least you could hear the variations in his tone of voice. Surely you were able to see that his disagreement was not necessarily ill-intentioned and that he may not have been a horribly perverted individual. Instead, he was just another guy who probably saw the world a little differently than you did.

Today, Mark is just a jerk in a little box next to a “comments” section smaller than your thumb. You can barely see his picture, let alone his body language and voice. You don’t perceive him as a human being worthy of respect, just a character on a white background. You then turn every Mark into a vulgar caricature that must be proved wrong.

As a result, you become less and less tolerant of opposite opinions. You develop an allergy to confrontation. The slightest counter-argument becomes a frontal threat. We are so fixed in our identities that any questioning is perceived as a personal attack.

The left wants to raise taxes to finance paternity leave… “WE LIVE IN A COMMUNIST COUNTRY! STALIN IS ABOUT TO MAKE HIS BIG COMEBACK!” A professor opposes a law for equal pay… “ANOTHER RIGHT-WING NEO-NAZI FASCIST FROM THE PATRIARCHY WHO WANTS TO DOMINATE THE WORLD!”

Damn, Mark.

3.

Ask any traditional business leader what is the greatest challenge they face with our generation of workers. I bet the majority of them will mention the following ones:

Poor motivation

Low level of commitment

Lack of loyalty

But we are not to blame. Leaders must adapt to our greatest quest: the meaning of work. We give it so much importance that sociologists go so far as to call us the WHY generation. It obviously refers to the letter Y, which encompasses all people born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s.

At one of his many conferences, Simon Sinek describes the Golden Circle, a marketing model that states that companies should not try to sell us a product, but rather values, a mission, a story. According to the famous British author, if Apple has become the richest company in the world, it is not only because it makes high-quality products. No, it is also and above all because it is a master in the art of storytelling.

When you buy a Macbook, you’re not just buying a computer. You buy a whole set of symbols related to the technological revolution. A lifestyle. Apple is selling you the ability to think differently. When you buy its products, you become an innovator.

Photo by Lewis Parsons on Unsplash

As companies struggle to give meaning to their employees’ work, young people are bored and looking for that meaning elsewhere. Social justice movements have a strong capacity to give meaning to our lives. All the more so when they provide strong emotions. When they are accepted within our group, and reinforced by their popularity on social media. In my opinion, this partly explains the pace at which instactivists consume information these days. Sometimes even at the expense of common sense.

Just think back to the beginning of the year 2020. During the month of April, passions were raging around the COVID-19 pandemic. The popular masses were praising themselves on their civic-mindedness by proudly waving the hashtag #StayHome.

Anyone who was against the lockdown would be severely reprimanded. The treatment of those who claimed their right to freedom was one-sided, and, to say the least, not so friendly. Every evening at 9 p.m., we would applaud the medical personnel on the frontlines from the comfort of our homes. What a touching solidarity.

But a few weeks later, following the murder of George Floyd, these same people suddenly gathered in hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands in the streets, creating new potential sources of contagion. Of course black lives matter, but what about our elders? What about our beloved medical personnel whom we were still applauding just yesterday? It was as if the nasty virus had suddenly evaporated from our streets.

This incoherence demonstrates that instactivists need to feel something all the time. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it makes them feel important.

As long as it fills the void.

There are, of course, activists dedicated to the movement, for whom the Floyd momentum was way more important than the pandemic. More power to them. But instactivists are not dedicated to the movement per se. No, the hashtag #StayHome just got boring after all these weeks. They needed something new. An updated hashtag to rush into. A new reason to get rid of all the accumulated frustration during two months of lockdown.

#BlackLivesMatter was right in time. As proof: three weeks after the murder of George Floyd, the majority of them had already moved on. Most of the brands that had associated their logo with the cause quickly went back to their original branding.

It was time to move on because they had already bought a clean conscience. They had already taken all the advantages they could out of it.