"Raising awareness"

[BipolarGuy]

When somebody wants to "raise awareness" of something, what does that actually mean?

It used to mean that they would make information easily available, for example by posting a link on social media, or perhaps a stand at the local library handing out leaflets.

But now "raising awareness" seems to mean posting something completely irrelevant on social media.

"I've been selected to raise awareness of suicide by posting a video of myself doing 25 pushups".

What purpose does this serve?

It doesn't provide information on depression or the reasons why people take their lives, or how to help.
It's just virtue signalling, which sadly seems to be the reason for the vast majority of "raising awareness" posts on social media.

Obviously you then get the people who upload comments like
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain"...

...I'm not even going to start on the 'motivational quote' crowd.

 

[watsonsmith]

To play devil's advocate (with a twist): Social media is to a large extent about getting attention, so this would be mixing spreading a message about the issue of suicide along with an opportunity to show off an aspect of yourself, thereby attracting more potential participants. (as long as there is any substantive information provided in the posts)

But I would agree since suicide is a very intimate issue with extremely complex socio-economic underlying factors. I doubt such "raising awareness" campaigns do any good beyond making the person getting some recognition within their social network.

 

[Lostandlooking]

Spreading awareness is such an impossible thing. In my experience, if someone hasn't been there themselves they simply can't imagine the amount of agony. There's no way around this. And trying to communicate about your mental state is like hitting your head against a brick wall.

 

[KibblesNBits]

It's virtue signalling, plain and simple. Then these people can pat themselves on the back and pretend they made a difference in the world.

 

[moonchild]

In a lot of cases, the only thing "raising awareness" does is simplify complex issues, resulting in the majority seeing the simplified version as the truth. With mental health for example, there's only awareness for people who fit a neat mould where they're depressed, but not too depressed. Functional. Literally ruining your life because of your mental health isn't very sexy, doesn't work well on Instagram.

 

[Wisdom3_1-9]

I agree that it reduces complex issues to seemingly simple topics for attention, and I also don't doubt that many people do engage in "virtue signaling" without feeling any real affinity for the issue.

Still, there can be positive movements. If I have a big following, I could do something that I know will attract their attention and bring up an issue of which my fans may not have been aware. A cynical view would say it's virtue signaling, but it could potentially "raise awareness" to a new demographic. The ice bucket challenge a few years ago was extremely successful in raising awareness and funds for ALS research. I was tagged and did research to learn more about it, though I'm sure most people don't.

So while I agree that there are some negatives to this trend, I hesitate to condemn them fully. If a teen heartthrob "raises awareness" on his TikTok about mental health and it encourages even one of his followers to reach out to a friend in need and try to make life a little better for them, then I think it's worth it.