With the Supreme Court's decision in late June regarding the issue of gay marriage, a sudden outpouring of support for the controversial issue commenced. Most notably on Facebook, where millions of users changed their profile pictures to include a rainbow flag overlay thanks to a simple app added by Facebook for the occasion. Although the showing of support was unprecedented, it was also largely empty. In many ways, those who do these sorts of "supportive" profile photos are what Thomas Paine would have called "sunshine patriots."
What's worse, rumors are circulating that the app was created as a social experiment by Facebook, which has been outed for similar things before. Snopes doesn't believe that this is what's happened, but doesn't entirely discount the idea either.
The Washington Post reports that over 26 million Facebook users (roughly 2 percent of all users) utilized the rainbow flag filter. A like percentage of people used a similar filter after the Haitian earthqauke that devastated that country a couple of years ago. Similarly, people filtered their profile photos during the Iranian protests of 2009 and for Egyptian protests during the "Arab Spring."
Yet in all of these cases, the shows of solidarity ultimately meant little. These gestures, while nice shows of support, are in the end just gestures. They aren't solid help. Usually they're done after the fact and most of the time, little concrete support is given to go along with the change in image. Like the Hollywood actor giving a speech to urge donation towards a cause but never actually donating himself, these profile photo changes are empty platitudes. It's easy to click a few times and "support" something, especially after it's the obviously popular thing to do. It's less easy to actually support a cause when it's more controversial or to give concretely to it with time, money, and activism on the street.
Working in politics as I do in the form of a Digital Political Consultant, it's not unusual to see the rhetoric being nothing more than that. Politicians and, often, their supposed supporters are quite often full of themselves but have little to offer but hot air. The world is full of sunshine patriots. At the same time, I see others who quietly (and often with little recognition) dedicate hours of volunteerism and many of their own dollars to support causes or candidates.
Sure, it's nice when armchair activists show their support for a cause, even when it is mostly because it's easy to do so and costs them little socially or economically. Yet you have to wonder if the same person who changed their profile photo to a rainbow flat last week would have shown up to march with gay rights activists ten years ago or put up a profile photo change to a gay, lesbian, and transgender cause last year after donating cash money to an active charity. Or even if they got out of their house to actually vote during election time.
True activism is hard to find. I would urge those who think changing their profile photos on social media in order to follow a trend will make a difference to volunteer and make an actual difference instead. Go to the homeless shelter, the blood bank, the children's hospital, the political march, the council chamber.. go to those places where actual work is being done to make change and participate. Write checks and donate time to those causes you believe in. Change your profile photo if you wish, but follow that up with actual work to help. Don't be one of Paine's sunshine patriots, supporting only when it's easy and popular.