We’re in the midst of a Communication Shutdown today.
I was alerted to this by a friend who wrote on Facebook over the weekend that she would be abstaining from Twitter and Facebook today in solidarity with those with autism. She also is using a special badge showing a big red slash, the universal “no” symbol as her social profile photo.
My next touch with the campaign was in my Reader this morning — a post from Beth Kanter about the campaign.
Now I was intrigued. By telling me they were not communicating today, I wanted to learn more about it. But I wasn’t willing to abstain from communicating. Besides I had already blown it by publishing a new post to my other blog, Grabbing the Gusto, and chatting on Facebook. Plus, maybe it’s my social nature, but it seemed to me that a campaign would be better off with people talking about it, not being silent.
The music in the one-minute campaign video tells us, “We can be heroes, just for one day.” I wondered about the hero bit and read further,
“If (people outside the autism community) shutdown for 1 day, they will feel a sense of disconnection and a sense of frustration. By creating a little empathy, we hope to encourage a wider understanding and acceptance of people with autism – an understanding we recognise those in the autism community already have.”
I’m not sure I buy that. I still think awareness is more likely than true understanding. But what if your job depends on you being active in social media? I wonder how long shutdown or boycott campaigns like this will work when our organizations become more and more social, and participating in social media becomes a daily function of most jobs.
I read further to learn that even before it started this campaign was not universally accepted in their community.
We are very happy to see that Communication Shutdown has prompted ‘Autistics Speaking Day’ and ‘Communicate to Educate and has been able to rally people in a productive way. Although our executions are paradoxical, we believe we have the same goal. We are talking to a number of people….who will be blogging on Nov 1 about their positive experiences and also their challenges. We believe that both events complement each other and will be promoting their blogs to give their voices extra reach, while at the same time giving our supporters a deeper understanding about autism.
Good recovery. I honestly don’t think someone like me can deeply understand autism by not tweeting all day, never mind the struggles of those with autism and their families. As I searched for more info on autism, I came across Stuart Duncan, a father of an autistic child, who wrote on his blog:
“The whole idea of Autism Awareness and Advocacy is that we speak out for those people/children that can not speak for themselves. As such, it makes very little sense to silence ourselves for them. I’m not even Autistic but even I feel it’s pretty insulting to think that not visiting a couple of websites could ever give you any insight into what it’s like to have Autism.”
I agree, but at least I am learning more about autism and sharing some facts with you, and that’s solely due to the Communication Shutdown. Score one for awareness. From Autism Speaks:
Did you know …
- Autism now affects 1 in 110 children and 1 in 70 boys
- Autism prevalence figures are growing
- More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined
- Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
- Autism costs the nation over $35 billion per year, a figure expected to significantly increase in the next decade
- Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases
- Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism
- There is no medical detection or cure for autism
Prevalence vs. Private Funding:
- Leukemia: Affects 1 in 1,200 / Funding: $277 million
- Muscular Dystrophy: Affects 1 in 100,000 / Funding: $162 million
- Pediatric AIDS: Affects 1 in 300 / Funding: $394 million
- Juvenile Diabetes: Affects 1 in 500 / Funding: $156 million
- Autism: Affects 1 in 110 / Funding: $79 million — What the what? Let’s fix that.
There are always naysayers about social media causes, campaigns and memes. It will be interesting to read the take on this one. Or will it? I’m beginning to tire of social media ranting about campaigns that aren’t done the “right” way. Perhaps the ranting is a natural phase in the development of a new medium. We analyze and criticize as a way to figure out how to make something better if we were to do it ourselves. I’m especially guilty of this when it comes to the use of social media by associations.
Is this a rant? I hope not. My purpose in writing this was to do my small part to help raise awareness and inspire you to click a few links and learn more for yourself.
November 1, 2010 at 10:48 am
Thank you!
I felt the same way when I heard about this originally. I completely & whole-heartedly agree that raising awareness is extremely important in this cause but shutting down (in other words, not discussing it) does not make one iota of sense to me. Thus, I do not support this particular campaign. In my opinion, it sends the wrong message.
Thank you, Deirdre for standing out among the rest to explain why you will continue to post, Tweet, chat away today anyway.
I see you still support the cause despite the campaign too. Excellent! That’s really all that matters anyway.
Once again, GREAT post!
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November 1, 2010 at 11:15 am
Thanks, Lisa. I don’t like criticizing a cause or anyone participating in it, and I don’t really mean this to do that. I guess this was my way of supporting them. I’ve seen tweets referring to discussion tomorrow by those who are participating in the shutdown. If they can continue the momentum and raise more awareness (and funds) tomorrow, that would be a success in my eyes.
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November 1, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Great post. It has been interesting to see challenges to these mass movements-this one, the breast cancer awareness opposition. I think these challenges are good because they will hopefully force us to examine our assumptions about what a particular group needs from us so we can make a real difference.
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November 1, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I was reminded of the Facebook breast cancer awareness campaigns. Last year, most of us thought, “oh, that’s clever,” but this year I think it was more like, “yeah, that’s getting lame.” We’re a tough crowd to please. But I’ll take raising awareness over apathy any day.
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November 1, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I really enjoyed this post. I tweeted about this cause a few times because I thought it was interesting and in line with my whole “Anti-Social Media” thing, but I had no idea of the greater ideas behind it. Thanks for your insight.
I’m all about raising awareness and taking action. My biggest gripe with awareness campaigns online right now is it’s so easy to include a link to more resources to help out, and many don’t. I figure why not? The worst that happens is no one clicks it and you’ve only succeeded in raising awareness.
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November 2, 2010 at 7:23 am
I agree with you, Jay. I think awareness and then education are the natural first and second steps. Once someone cares about your cause, they’re more likely to give and to educate others about it.
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November 1, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Thanks for your post and for shedding some additional insights. What I loved about this campaign is that was a networked fundraiser with organizations from around the world – listed in their partner pages — It was easy to click through and find information on their pages. Also, I liked the fact that this was about making more noise – adding to the “cause pollution and information overload” that is out there — I didn’t expect to actually understand autism from not using Twitter for day – but hoped that by blogging about the campaign others might write about it and help the cause.
Thanks for the post
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November 2, 2010 at 7:27 am
Your hope came true, Beth! It was only after reading your post that I actually clicked on the campaign to learn more. I’m publishing a post in a few minutes that contrasts the Communication Shutdown campaign with Movember. However, as I said to Jay above, at least now I’m educated a bit more now about autism, especially the fact that their funding doesn’t match its prevalence relative to other causes. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
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November 1, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Wow- the funding stats made me have to pick up my jaw off the floor. We really need to change that don’t we?
From a marketing perspective, I can appreciate the idea of a shutdown though- I just don’t know if it really will work as they intend. However, I’ve read a few autism posts today and I learned a little more about autism and its affects. To me, that’s more powerful.
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November 2, 2010 at 7:29 am
Exactly, Melissa, and it that sense, it worked. They’re on my radar screen now for causes, and they weren’t before. I’m looking forward to reading the follow-up posts from people I know who participated in the shutdown.
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November 1, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Bravo on this post for many reasons. I’m likely to immediately respond to a online call for action (or inaction in this case) but I don’t always do my homework about the issues. You took the time to reflect on the day of silence, seek out more info, educate yourself about issues concerning Autism and then posted this great article. Many thanks for the Autism Activist shout out. I think it does work better than online silence.
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November 2, 2010 at 7:32 am
I agree with you, Lisa. When people I respect participate in something, it does motivate me to learn more. I had the time to do that yesterday morning and the post was my natural response. Thanks for your kind words!
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November 2, 2010 at 7:48 am
[…] I wrote about the Communication Shutdown campaign. I appreciate the efforts of those raising awareness and donations for the cause – […]
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