Still the days seem the same

Just because you make up a word doesn’t mean you get to control what it means or how it comes to be used.

So, OK, “slacktivism” has come to mean something else. But this discussion of that something else by Phylicia Holt at Digital America does capture something of the original sense of the term.

The generational dynamic in 2013 turns out to be the same as it was 20 years ago. You’ve got your older generation looking down their nose at the “slacker” youth because kids these days are apathetic and lazy and yadda yadda yadda. And you’ve got your younger generation pointing out that these so-called slackers are actually very engaged — just because their activism takes a different form doesn’t make it illegitimate, ineffective or unimportant.

Like the man said:

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through …

Pretty soon we’re all gonna get a little older …