The Darfur camp interested me because I think that most people turn away from these images and if a story isn’t on the front page of whatever they are reading, it gets lost. Darfur has been in the news so long that unfortunately I think it has become an ‘out of sight out of mind’ thing.
That people can run into this crisis and learn about it in a world that is ostensibly just for fun should bring home that this isn’t going away and that it is indeed a grave issue that needs attention. I’m not sure that the camp in the virtual world will actually affect change in the real world in any major way, but at the minimum it can expose more people to the issue. Out of all the people that come across this area and listen to the stories or see the images, if even one goes out and does something then it has served a purpose.
I would consider effective activism to be things like raising money to send supplies there, actually taking food there, helping refugees who have arrived here (in the States) and need help learning the language or learning marketable skills. There are various charity organizations and NGO affiliated outlets that work towards this, and there are volunteer organizations (like NY Cares or the IRC) that help immigrants that are newly arrived here.
I don’t know of online activism other than web petitions but I'm sure there are many. The reach of the net is useful for spreading news of events or causes that otherwise many people wouldn’t know of. Though I don’t know how much direct activism comes of it, using the net for informative and humanitarian purposes is a great use of its capabilities.
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I agree with your view that effective activism can come from a hybrid of Second Life and real life. Second Life can be used a a useful tool for disseminating information, but it should be plainly understood by all Second Life activists that ideas that don't make it out of Second Life don't make much of an impact. Second Life is like a swimming pool; you can use it for exercise as well as relaxation, but you can also drown in it if you are not careful. There are indeed many people out there whose Second Life is many times more important than their actual life. This is what I mean by drowning in Second Life and I feel that it is rather unfortunate whenever this happens to somebody.
ReplyDeleteFor more examples of digital activism, you can check out Future Active by Graham Meikle, which I recommended to other students as well.
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