Facebook provides a way to support awareness for many things. You can donate your status to gay rights, you can put up something red for AIDS awareness, you can post a pink ribbon to help support women with breast cancer, and you can even post a picture of a cartoon character to help spread awareness of child abuse, but what are you really doing to help?
Facebook provides a way to connect to all people. When someone starts a club or campaign over Facebook, everyone sees it and everyone can join and contribute. One of the many groups started over Facebook was the one about where you left your purse. “I like it on the floor.” This “campaign” was supposedly supporting breast cancer.
Another event over Facebook was Doppelganger Week. Facebook users would switch their profile picture to the celebrity they look like the most. Profile pictures changed to famous actors, musicians, and athletes for a week. The game was fun but there was no purpose.
People are doing what little they can do to help by being apart of Facebook groups and fads. The groups do spread understanding and but many people aren’t aware of what they really are supporting. Many people don’t see the real reasons behind the campaigns they are joining and the purposes behind them are being forgotten. The causes people are supporting are becoming less important.
Another campaign was to change your status to your bra color, also to support breast cancer awareness. These petitions are fun games for Facebook but their purpose is not being met. Many sources say that none of these “campaigns” offer any kind of support to anything. They may provide a small amount of awareness, but they are not really doing anything.
The latest “campaign” over Facebook was to change your profile picture to a cartoon.
Facebook celebrated cartoon week. Students and people of all ages changed their pictures to their favorite cartoon characters as kids.
“I did change my picture because of the moral behind it. I mean, obviously a picture by itself can’t stop child abuse, but the meaning behind it all was really cool. Maybe just knowing that so many were people were willing to change it was the purpose,” stated junior Jessica Fisk.
Change your picture to a cartoon was started on November 21st and lasted until the 28th. Cartoon characters such as Disney princesses, Rugrats, Toy Story, characters from Rocket Power, and Looney Tunes all took over. The campaign’s purpose was to fight against child abuse. It was supposed to support anti-child violence for a week and to have fond memories of your childhood.
“They really don’t do anything to spread awareness. Usually just a few people will know the actual cause and everyone else just follows, thinking it’s just a new trend,” said junior Molly Barrett.
There is not a complete reason and purpose to changing your picture to a cartoon, and because of the cartoons, it’s harder to identity friends. There is nothing bad about this petition, however it is not doing much to help victims of child abuse. It is a friendly reminder of the better memories of our childhoods. It is also supposed to make sure we pass and remember happy experiences and not unhappy memories of beatings or violence.
“I did it, but it was pretty pointless because putting a picture up to raise awareness about it isn’t going to help actually stop it from happening,” stated junior Alex Marsh.
Many organizations and charities are faked. There are many secret “catches” that people don’t really look into. There are many organizations that people put their time into, that don’t really do anything to help.
“I think it was a nice gesture to begin with but people should be more aware of what it is that there supporting and where it originates because there’s a lot of creeps on the internet,” stated junior Lacy Reese.
It’s hard to give a lot to charities and organizations all the time, but Facebook doesn’t provide the support that these charities and organizations need.
“Most people didn’t even know what it was for. Absolutely no one benefited from it. All the Facebook causes are kind of pointless,” added junior Jocelyn Frye.
The Facebook cartoon character movement against childhood violence has been inspiring and has spread around the world. Facebook has many good ideas for supporting causes and does a good job spreading awareness to people all over, but awareness isn’t always enough.
Awareness is the first step but the next step is to do something. People can help support causes more effectively by taking action. Because of Facebook, awareness has been brought to many people everywhere, but there is still much more you can really do.
Instead of changing your picture, updating your status, liking a group on Facebook, donate to a real cause and do something that can really help.