Confessions of an armchair activist

I have a confession to make, and it's one I make with a bit of trepidation, since I feel like I might step on some toes here: Eight times out of ten, awareness campaigns bother me. Let me explain: for causes that we all know are serious problems, such as breast cancer, etc… awareness itself isn't the problem. Awareness campaigns are useful when it's a little-known cause, or when there's a stigma that needs to be broken in order to have people become involved. Frankly, I've come across far more awareness campaigns promoting things that seem to be common knowledge, which makes me suspect that it's just a trendy cause that marketers have latched onto primarily for profit. But even in the best of cases, 'awareness' itself should never be the end goal - theoretically, awareness should be the stepping stone to active involvement.
After all, we live in a world that is far more interconnected than at any previous point in history; we have the technology to be able to keep up with hundreds of friends and acquaintances over social media, to the point where - if we really wanted to - we could probably find out what they ate for dinner, how they're feeling about the weather, and the basics of what's going on in their lives. We have the ability to travel to just about everywhere in the world, and we can do it reasonably fast. We are better educated in terms of the maintenance of our health, homes, and environment than ever before. It's somewhat boggling to me, therefore, that we regularly come across this information and do nothing about it. In the western world, in our relative comfort, we have the ability to sit in our ergonomically-designed desk chairs and read about the continual slaughter of civilians in Syria, oppressive governments, the devastating earthquakes in Iran… and then we can go on with our day from there, and the updates we read provide nothing more than topics for conversation.
We're literally overwhelmed with information, choices, and news of all sorts. There are millions of causes begging for our attention, and many of them ARE extremely valid. Personally, I've found that far too often, my response is inaction, and while I am educated about world events, or even the goings-on locally -- I remain relatively unaffected. Now, I think a lot of other people struggle with this, too. We hear so much tragedy day after day, and we're never really informed as to how to get involved, or how to make the situation better, if indeed there is anything we CAN do. So, after a while, we do nothing, and we feel no personal sense of responsibility. I've become aware of this tendency in myself, and it's made me feel utterly ashamed. I'm about eight months away from graduating university, intending to head out in a job market to find something to do that will help other people in a sustainable way. That's always been my goal, and it's sobering to think of the opportunities I may have already passed by. I have always loved information, education, and obtaining knowledge, but I've come to realize that knowledge is only power when it is used, and otherwise it's completely devoid of meaning.
So, what should we do? Honestly, I don't have a clear answer. The only thing I've figured out for sure is that I no longer wish to be a passive consumer of tragedy, whether it's far away or local. I can't do everything, but I can begin by looking for ways to be involved with the information I come across. I want to read the news and have it elicit more than a momentary pang of “that's really too bad”. For any of you reading this column that are struggling with the same thing, I'd like to encourage you to give it a shot with me: look for ways to be involved with the news you hear. For those of you who are already involved with something, or many things, I'd like to encourage you to keep it up, and to not be shy about offering people opportunities to get on board with you. We can all start somewhere, whether that's writing to our MP's, calling up the local food bank to see what's needed, investigating the best charities to give money to, volunteering… the opportunities to live an actively involved life exist, it's just a matter of actually doing it. I believe that the majority of people have the best of intentions and the desire to do something to better the world around us. We may not be able to change everything, but a change in attitude can set a great deal in motion.