Did you know Facebook can help end global warming, fight breast cancer and support Finnish war veterans with just a few mouse clicks? Amazingly, the “Causes” application claims it can happen.Since Facebook permitted third-party developers to create applications to extend the site’s functionality, thousands of programs have been released.Users can give each other hugs, play word games against people from around the world and annoy their friends in a million different ways. But “Causes” claims to be different.Project Agape, the application’s developer, says it is “democratizing activism by empowering activists with an arsenal of tools for users of Facebook who want to leverage their network on Facebook to effect positive change.”In other words, “Causes” purports to allow users to change the world by raising awareness not just among their neighbors and the people in their address book but among anyone who can see their Facebook profile.Users, perhaps now best called “activists,” can allow “Causes” to display icons and text on their Facebook walls proclaiming their support for any issue under the sun. If a cause doesn’t already exist for some particular pet peeve, a user can just create another one.The application can place notices in other users’ news feeds to spread the word even further. Moreover, there are tools allowing users to donate to nonprofit organizations associated with a particular cause. Both the total amount of money donated and the total number of supporters of every cause are displayed.This certainly works to raise global awareness — without “Causes,” those Finnish veterans wouldn’t get much thought in Louisiana. But as a tool for activism, there’s almost nothing less effective.Even a cursory glance at some numbers demonstrates this point. As of this writing, the most popular cause is “Support The O Campaign for Cancer Prevention,” with 4,302,058 members, and $78,402 donated.Simple arithmetic shows the average donation to this group is 1.82 cents per member. Other highly-populated causes show similar donation rates.The level of dedication this shows is appalling. “Support The O Campaign for Cancer Prevention” has a population approximately equal to that of Louisiana, and yet it has raised less per member than most Louisiana residents have hiding in their couch cushions.Then what does it mean to support a Facebook cause?It requires as little effort to sign up for one as it does to add any other application and demands no action beyond the initial mouse click. Users aren’t required to give monetarily to their causes.The uncomfortable conclusion is that the only requirement to be considered an activist is to call yourself one. “Causes” become the electronic equivalent of bumper stickers rather than a meaningful way to reach out and effect radical change.Unfortunately, this is about as effective as a real bumper sticker. Cancer is self-evidently bad — nobody needs a news feed notice to remind them.Relying on social networking sites to express moral outrage trivializes the ideals about which we ought to be most serious. It absolves Facebook users of the responsibility to take social action — saying “someone should do something” has become enough to ease the conscience.Nobody ever changed the world by talking about it a lot. Facebook “activists” need to put down their laptops and pick up their picket signs — or even just their checkbooks — if they want their causes to be more than complaints.- – – -Contact Matthew Patterson at [email protected]