We post, we share, we like. In recent years, our social media feeds have been inundated with slogans, infographics and hashtags on everything from climate change to gender rights, from racial justice to mental health awareness. The virtual world has become a living room of apparent political engagement, especially for my generation.

But how much of this is concrete and how much is abstract?

This phenomenon, often called “slacktivism” —a portmanteau of “slacker” and “activism” —is a kind of political placebo: a small symbolic gesture that makes us feel engaged without moving us to act. While digital platforms have undeniably democratized the flow of information and given voice to underrepresented perspectives, they have also created a dangerous illusion: that awareness equals change and visibility equals victory.

But the truth is otherwise: “likes” don’t change the world.

Solidarity as a Comfort Without Commitment

Posting a black square, resharing #JeSuisCharlie, applying a temporary Palestine flag filter may seem powerful in the moment. It signals to the outside world that we care. But in the age of appearance, these actions are rarely followed by deeper engagement. There is no real effort, sacrifice, or cost in fighting the systems we claim to oppose.

Consider when the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni limited the recognition of parental rights to the biological parent only in the case of same-sex parents. This initially sparked a wave of outrage online. Many posted, few organized. Compared to countries where this type of reaction has triggered mass protests, Italy’s digital response has remained digital.

The Awake, Aware, Afraid Generation

That’s not to say young people don’t care. On the contrary, many of us care about the climate crisis, systemic injustice and the mental health crisis, among others. But it’s important to distinguish caring from organizing; being aware from being effective.

A large part of the youth population feels overwhelmed and disillusioned with traditional political systems. This is because the institutions seem slow, corrupt or obsolete, while the only place that seems accessible to exercise the right of expression following the influence is the Internet. But endlessly scrolling through injustices—without the tools to act or the ability to have an impact—often just makes us more anxious.

Clicktivism to Commitment

First, true activism requires sacrifice of time, energy and cost. It means interacting with friends and family, but also, on a larger scale, attending meetings, volunteering and participating in local charities, lobbying politicians and organizing especially when remaining silent seems the easiest option.

We know that social media prefers content that is simplified, impactful and responsive. But real change is complex and slow.

The key to intelligent development of the activism tool is to read more than to republish, question more than to quote and build knowledge than trending.

Activism is not an individual action, but a collective response. In this, Italy boasts a long history of courageous student and worker movements, from the protests of ’68 to the more recent climate movements of Fridays for Future. Drawing on this legacy means reclaiming physical space: the square, the university, the neighborhood.

Another access card would be to measure impact, rather than visibility. Seeing often refers to a passive and involuntary act of perception: you see things without necessarily focusing your attention. Looking involves an active direction of the eyes: you choose to look at something. So while sharing a post that reaches 8,000 people has a significant effect, sometimes talking to 8 people in person leads to a deeper change. Influence is not always quantifiable and the good result certainly is not always visible in the short term.

Social Media as a Vehicle, Not a Destination

All of the above is not to diminish the value of digital tools. In fact, if used wisely, they can lead to major changes. #MeToo, Fridays for Future and Black Lives Matter have gained global popularity thanks to social media. But it wasn’t just hashtags. These movements have been the result of organization-cooperation-hard work, sometimes invisible.

In Italy, the most recent example is the Non Una Di Meno movement, which represents a new feminist and trans-feminist movement that has been taking to the streets for 8 years, filling the squares with millions of women and that has been able to give a new voice to the history of Italian feminism of the last century, updating old slogans, such as that of “starting from oneself”, and finding in some analyses of Marxist feminism the key to understanding the crisis of capitalist modernity in which we live today. What is relevant for our analysis is that this feminist coalition manages to successfully combine online communication with street action: online platforms should be points of access, not of arrival.

Why We Need to Talk About This Now

We are facing a decade of converging crises: ecological, social, economic and political. This is not the time for purely digital gestures. It is time to reclaim activism as something deeper than a “like” and more enduring than an Instagram story.

As a generation, we have a social duty to ask ourselves not only what we believe in, but also what we are willing to do. What we post loses value if it is not accompanied by what we build. Because if we limit our resistance to pixels and likes, we risk mistaking expression for transformation and losing the world we are trying to save.

Virtual reality is an oxymoron. “Virtual” implies something unreal or simulated and “reality” refers to the real world. The term aims to describe a technologically created experience that appears real. And this is where the executive journey begins, following the five phases: awareness – freedom of expression – spreading information – action – social impact.

*Margot Potito is a lawyer and currently a judicial officer at the Court of Appeal in Rome, she is passionate about EU law and legal writing, with an LL.M. from the European Law and Governance School.

This op-ed is part of To BHMA International Edition’s NextGen Corner, a platform for fresh voices on the defining issues of our time.