Armchair activists do their bit in virtual world

Anna Hazare is not just someone whose name was recently mispronounced by a news anchor. She called him Anna as in Anna Nicole Smith. He is also an illusion creator from Hyderabad with spiked hair who is inspired by Kareena Kapoor, likes football and calls his relationship status complicated. When you look for Anna Hazare on Facebook (which first asks you if you meant Anna Hazard), so many profiles with various close-up shots of the Gandhi-topi-sporting activist greet you that it is difficult to find the real activist who fasted for a national cause just a week ago.
Among these people are 24-year-olds from the South and elderly singles from the North, who are now experiencing a sudden, unprecedented increase in their number of friends. Though the 72-year-old Anna Hazare may not have anticipated his new elevation to the status of youth icon when he started campaigning against corruption, tech-savvy youngsters are ensuring in their own ways that he gets there soon. Last week, for instance, some young Facebook users vowed to support the dhoti-clad ex-armyman in his cause by sacrificing a restaurant meal for a day. One user posted a comment asking why the economic fast wasn't scheduled for the weekend. The moderator quipped, ``Saturday and Sunday is when families go out to eat, no one would do it.''
Its amusing how social networking sites and other passports to vanity have now invariably spawned a new breed of armchair soldiers -- the slacktivists. These people staunchly seem to believe that wallposts are mightier than swords, clicking is social service and playing anti-corruption games online, nationalism. In the hours following Hazare's fast, some of them lit candles online while others switched off the lights in their house for 10 minutes as part of the Lights Out campaign to supplement Hazare's fast, leading to confusion about the cause. Some other users even felt compelled to scribble ``mera neta chor hai'' across their forearm and post pictures of the same which their friends liked in order to denounce corruption. Of course, they couldn't hold a candle to the BlackBerry Messenger-driven candlelight protest in Andheri in which, as a female participant puts it, some corrupt CEOs were protesters.
``The online activism makes you feel like youre doing something for a cause, it is yuppy to be supporting the movement and saves you the guilt of not being part of a cause you believe in,'' says mental health practitioner Dr Harish Shetty. ``While the online world is a substitute for time and space and provides a sense of identity and belonging, it is also a contributor to the sense of self,'' says Shetty.
In the overwhelming show of patriotism, the 72-year-old Hazare has been subjected to some unlikely parallels. On a Facebook page called ``Join Anna Hazare's Fast To Bring the Jan Lokpal Bill'' that has inspired 44,244 likes and urges fans to join the fight against corruption by fasting with Anna Hazare for a day or as long as you can, enthused fans have hailed Hazare as the new iron man of India, begged to him to come to their home states and weed out corruption and egged others to Anna, Halla Bol.
Jubilant status messages like ``Vande Mataram'' and ``We have done it'' as if corruption had now been rooted out of the country popped up on newsfeeds when the government relented to some of Hazare's demands last week. But the quick damage control by the Congress government also left some slacktivists high and dry when a solidarity march planned at Bandra had to be called off. ``What should I do with the Gandhi cap?'' lamented a public relations executive. In another instance, a well-known spiritual organization sought the expertise of an image management firm to see how a members brush with Hazare could be used to benefit the organization.