There is yet another meme on Facebook in support of a trigger. There are photos of cartoon figures replacing profile photos left and right. Probably the most popular photos are the cartoons from the 80’s and toons from the 90’s. This is a move meant to bring awareness to child abuse.
Pictures of cartoon characters as profile pictures on Facebook
“Change your FB profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on FB. Join the fight against child abuse. Copy & paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same.” This Facebook status has been making its rounds for the last few days. Many people are taking their friends up on this movement, using childhood cartoons from the 80’s and childhood cartoons from the 90’s as their picture. Some that have been used a lot are Pinky and the Brain, Strawberry Shortcake, and Might Mouse.
Childhood cartoons to fight child abuse
There have been various times before where status changes and profile pictures have been used on Facebook to raise awareness for one thing or another. There is usually a certain topic that somebody is trying to make others aware of. However, these status and profile picture updates often do not consist of any specific instructions for how to improve or do something on the issue. There isn’t any data on just how many individuals are changing their profile picture to take part in this cause, but from appearances, thousands if not millions are taking part in this cause.
How to do something
Childhood cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s could be an excellent reminder of better times, but they don’t actually help. Bringing awareness to a problem and taking action on a problem are two different things. While awareness is great, without some action beyond that, pushes such as the childhood cartoons to fight child abuse idea are nothing beyond a shill; something that makes you feel good but doesn’t actually do anything. If you want to take action on childhood abuse, you need to do something other than find a cartoon from the 80’s to use as your profile picture. One simple step would be to consist of the National Child Abuse Hotline number inside your status, 1-800-4-A-CHILD. Don’t forget that a childhood cartoon is only a picture and not more.
