Shiny, Happy Activism
News: Clicks, not cliques result from teens' use of an online activism site. But are they really engaging in activism?
September 24, 2007
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Eric Glocker is a rarity among 17-year-old high school students: He's not on MySpace. His folks don't want him to, he says—it's a protective "parental thing"—and so far he's indulged them. But three years ago his parents did let him join YouthNoise—a kind of MySpace meets MoveOn. Unlike MySpace, with its no-holds-barred banter and barebones aesthetics, YouthNoise is monitored for objectionable content and has a glossy homepage that feels like a scholastic magazine: Bright photos link to articles on "causes" for teens to claim, like "poverty," "environment," and "war, peace, and terrorism."
In his real life, Eric insists he's "average," a football player in suburban Colorado Springs with "no aspirations beyond going to college and joining the Marines." On YouthNoise, using the pseudonym Ampmaster, Eric indulges his "deep thinking" side, something Eric says would get him ostracized at school. As Ampmaster, Eric can debate the nuances of the term "jihad"; offer support to a 15-year-old girl wondering if she's gay; and admonish newbies for being trivial. ("I actually have read your blog," Ampmaster responded to one young woman who wrote about how she hates cleaning her room. "You need to find more amusing content, like rants against society and what not.") And by pontificating about women's rights, religion, and the war in Iraq, Ampmaster has made friends with types of teens that Eric would never be found sitting with in his school cafeteria.
YouthNoise is one of the most established of a growing number of activism sites for youth. YouthNoise caters to slightly older youth; DoSomething awards grants to teen "rock stars" who "make a difference"; the United Nation's Voices of Youth educates young people about their rights; TakingITGlobal has a refined, international feel. And the software Causes on Facebook launched in late May, letting Facebook members promote social causes. These sites' goal of "making service cool and accessible," as DoSomething's "Content Dude" George Weiner describes it, appeals to corporations wanting to associate their brands with hip, youthful social responsibility. Last year, a group of corporations and foundations pitched in $1.5 million for YouthNoise to revamp its social networking features, and the logos of JP Morgan, Jet Blue, Doritos, and Home Depot flash across DoSomething's homepage beneath the slogan "sponsors that rock."
The adults backing these sites say they're providing youth with tools to use the Internet for true change. After all, last year's student protests around immigration issues were partly organized on MySpace. But distilling politics and activism into glitzy one-stop shopping sites for teens may reflect adults' fantasies of youth engagement rather than the real deal. What's appealing about MySpace is its raw, unmediated nature: It "represents a part of life that seems to be noncontrolled by adults and that's why it has such currency," says Mindy Faber of Open Youth Networks, which collaborates with youth on technology and media projects. She adds that the activist sites, by treating politics as an isolated interest, overlook "how tied to culture political expression is for youth."
So far, DoSomething and YouthNoise both report around 100,000 monthly visitors, trifling compared to MySpace's 60 million. Fewer than 50 YouthNoise members use the site heavily, but these enthusiasts, like Ampmaster, are true devotees, posting nearly daily.
After three years on YouthNoise, Eric decided it was time to retire Ampmaster and live more resolutely in the real world. His online community mourned. "Tears are running down my face," wrote one poster. "You want to save the world, but we need you to save the world here." She was referring not to an adult idea of revolution, but to a more personal radical enterprise: creating a virtual haven where the cool kids can indulge their ruminative side, and the geeky ones get to be a little cooler.
