On December 6th every Facebook profile photo was to be a favorite childhood cartoon. Why? To raise awareness of child abuse.For the weeks leading up to December 6th the Facebook landscape slowly (and sometimes not even all that slowly) turned into a red-carpet Who's Who of cartoon characters from our respective childhood. Older Facebookers had Yogi & the Flintstones. Those who were closer to my age donated their spaces to GI Joe, the Thundercats, the Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and more. Still others resisted, often with the following status update:
When the rumors died down the meme was the work of pedophiles, or that it was a crafty way to hack your Facebook profile, and December 6th came and went, the question remained unanswered: So did it help? Were children less abused during the Facebook run-up to December 6th? I doubt it.
I also doubt that it was a waste of time, or some viral stunt just to see how many folks could get rolled up into the eSnow-Ball barreling down the slope of the information super highway. The creators of the meme hoped to raise awareness & I got to believe the thousands if not millions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that popped up in the days leading up to December 6th did in fact create "awareness" of child abuse. Someone had to have asked "why do you have Papa Smurf as your profile pic?" Hopefully the wise old Smurf replied.
Like it or not, we are going to be seeing more and more of these kinds of things via Facebook, Twitter, and the myriad of other social network sites. The success of the Cartoon/Child Abuse campaign cast that in stone, and truthfully, I am a fan. In a world where this humble, often neglected blog already has 10 views today (now 10:00 AM Eastern), and since its launch has been accessed 18 times from users in Malta, I can communicate across a landscape that is both humbling and empowering. From Malta to Turkey to the Netherlands to Palm Springs, CA and right back here to Columbus, OH, folks have read what I wrote (mostly opinion) and when you amplify that by the traffic of Facebook or Twitter, the potential grows in a way that should produce humility...hopefully.
I am small potatoes. My sphere of influence is minuscule. Just ask my dog. Yet somebody somewhere reads this (thank you by the way). Somebody read my Facebook status update today and when I "donated" it to the Human Rights Campaign they read that update too. I missed out on the Cartoon profile pic meme (sadly) but I do not need a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter account, or one of those banners they tow behind planes at football games to raise awareness and neither do you. Every time you tell somebody that you are busy Sunday because you are going to church, every time you object to a racist/sexist/homophobic joke, every time you stand firm for your convictions be they reusable grocery bags or animal abuse you live out the best campaign ever - a person who puts their faith and convictions into action.
As Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."
I also doubt that it was a waste of time, or some viral stunt just to see how many folks could get rolled up into the eSnow-Ball barreling down the slope of the information super highway. The creators of the meme hoped to raise awareness & I got to believe the thousands if not millions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that popped up in the days leading up to December 6th did in fact create "awareness" of child abuse. Someone had to have asked "why do you have Papa Smurf as your profile pic?" Hopefully the wise old Smurf replied.
Like it or not, we are going to be seeing more and more of these kinds of things via Facebook, Twitter, and the myriad of other social network sites. The success of the Cartoon/Child Abuse campaign cast that in stone, and truthfully, I am a fan. In a world where this humble, often neglected blog already has 10 views today (now 10:00 AM Eastern), and since its launch has been accessed 18 times from users in Malta, I can communicate across a landscape that is both humbling and empowering. From Malta to Turkey to the Netherlands to Palm Springs, CA and right back here to Columbus, OH, folks have read what I wrote (mostly opinion) and when you amplify that by the traffic of Facebook or Twitter, the potential grows in a way that should produce humility...hopefully.
I am small potatoes. My sphere of influence is minuscule. Just ask my dog. Yet somebody somewhere reads this (thank you by the way). Somebody read my Facebook status update today and when I "donated" it to the Human Rights Campaign they read that update too. I missed out on the Cartoon profile pic meme (sadly) but I do not need a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter account, or one of those banners they tow behind planes at football games to raise awareness and neither do you. Every time you tell somebody that you are busy Sunday because you are going to church, every time you object to a racist/sexist/homophobic joke, every time you stand firm for your convictions be they reusable grocery bags or animal abuse you live out the best campaign ever - a person who puts their faith and convictions into action.
As Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."
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