Nit picking? Aaah, afraid so...

My choice was to either write my blog or go back through my childrens’ hair checking for another head lice reinfestation.  So here I am blogging.   And giving my head a little scratch.

If your mum told you that you never had nits, she is a very lovely mum… and is lying!   She would have had to write the note to the teacher… “Lisa was absent yesterday as I had to treat her hair for head lice”, she had to inform your best friend’s mum that she sent home more from the party than intended.  Maybe, like me, she would have found a morbid fascination as she combed out hundreds of little buggers at different stages in their life cycle from her childrens’ and, let’s face it, her own hair.   

While I cannot shake that image out of my mind (or my hair for that matter), I have to ask: How can the human race, so advanced that we are able to take a photo of our food at a café with our telephone and send it into cyberspace so others can admire it on their electronic devices all over the world, not have figured out how to eradicate head lice??  They are pretty tiny – and no opposable thumbs!?

I know why.  Because no one has ever run a digital activism campaign to stop the nits!  Like that status on Facebook.  Retweet it to all your followers.  Upload some parodies about nits on You Tube.  That will stop them.  Hhhmmm

Sivitanides,M and Shah, V claim that activism is now sharper and more focussed thanks to the rise and rise of digital technology, but they do offer that there are three ways of viewing the value of digital activism.  The optimistic approach infers the hope that the use of digital technologies will ‘change the nature of power in the real world.’   The pessimistic perspective suggests that while one group uses digital technology to organise and act, so too can other groups use the technology to continue to oppress (head lice treatment manufacturers?).  The persistent approach recognises that the technology is being used to facilitate activism that was already possible, albeit, maybe faster and wider-reaching.

Mandy Cropper makes the point beautifully in her blog: if digital activism is as easy as clicking a button, we can all be involved, but is it really making a difference?   Henry Jenkins speaks about social media being the ‘technology of collective intelligence’.  The new ‘participatory culture’ reacts to digitally shared information in the digital space, but in my opinion, it is important to give credit to real people for creating change in real life.  From the French Revolution, to the Suffragettes, to Indian women and their supporters right now, the activism and desire for change is coming from their hearts, not the tips of their fingers.

It seems that my digital activism against head lice will only go as far as my fingertips scratching my head.  I realise my campaign against nits will probably stay my own, as bigger things are happening in the world.  I am excited to see how people will continue to explore how technology will help their cause.

But just in case, please like the No More Lice Facebook page if you see one.

Image source: Author unknown, Giant Insects Attack the Drive-in theatre, viewed 2 January 2013, http://cubadhl.blogspot.com.au/2010_01_01_archive.html