Fads and Things

This week has proven one thing if you are part of nearly any online community and that is social networking can be a powerful thing. One particular campaign has saturated my twitter feed and Facebook this week and I'm not going to mention it by name so I don't get lumped into the category of  using a popular topic to self promote myself. Though if it was the right topic I may do just that, a good profile generates publicity which can generate income which is not a bad thing. Any how I have ranted to hubby about this thing so I will endeavour to keep this entry brief.
When something generates a lot of chatter in social media it can be a good thing or a bad thing, heaven knows there have been plenty of bad things. However the campaign this week fits into both categories. With something that gains this much momentum there will always be detractors and yes I have read some of their points and some of the good ones, so I don't feel I'm going into this biased one way or another. The bad is to do with money, predominantly and it is a shame when that overtakes any good. The good however is that people's eyes have been opened to something they otherwise may have stayed closed to - awareness is often a very good thing.
My personal opinion is that this campaign overlooks a couple of very important issues - firstly when the head is cut off of a terrible organisation chances are it won't collapse but someone else will step into the vacant place and that could be a very bad thing; secondly what happens to those caught up in this issue, those directly affected who have been trained/brainwashed/done terrible things to survive? There has been no talk about this and to be honest that is probably the things that disturbs me most.
What I would like to pull out of this fad is a suggestion, take it or leave it as you will - why don't you find out about a topic that gets your blood boiling and raise awareness about that. For me there are a couple of things that at various times get me ranting - domestic violence, self harm and human slavery. I have blogged about all these things and if you get me on the right (or wrong) day then you will get an earful about any of these things.
Fads can serve a purpose but maybe not jumping on the band wagon isn't a bad thing, maybe there are other things out there that you are able to raise awareness about, even if only one person listens - knowledge is power after all. Not everyone has their own voice, maybe you can help someone else find theirs.