How Can Awareness Be Spread Without Talking About the Cause?

The article “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Service” by Adam Davis is an interesting piece that discusses the idea that community service/engagement should NOT be openly talked about because it takes away from the service, and steers it in an ego boosting direction.  I find the claims Davis makes as quite negative and not entirely true. Davis states, “It seems to be so clear that Service Is Good (SIG) that we do not need to question service or to talk about it; we only need to do it. It even seems that talking about service might be a problem—first, because if you’re talking about service, you might not be doing service, and second, because if you’re talking about service, you might start to wonder about its goodness”. Yes, some individuals may use community service as a way to enhance their ego among peers, but not everyone is like that! Talking about service is not a bad thing, if anything, I believe talking about service helps spread the word about the cause, especially on social media. Using twitter, Instagram, or youtube as a form of mentioning the service or organization is an amazing way to spread the word in order to attract more attention to the cause.

For example, a youtuber/makeup artist by the name of Jessica Haze, whose channel focus is on beauty related videos, uploaded her visit to the Animal Farm Sanctuary. These animals were rescued for various reasons, mainly being due to neglect,  or abuse in a factory farm. A factory farm is “Far from the idyllic, spacious pastures that are shown in advertisements for meat, milk, and eggs, factory farms typically consist of large numbers of animals being raised in extreme confinement. Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit. They undergo painful mutilations and are bred to grow unnaturally fast and large for the purpose of maximizing meat, egg, and milk production for the food industry. Their bodies cannot support this growth, which results in debilitating and painful conditions and deformities” (FarmSanctuary.org). Haze helped around the sanctuary, got to interact with some of the rescued animals, and heard their stories. It seemed like a pretty amazing learning experience. As a viewer, I learned a plethora of information and I have since done further research regarding the farm animal cruelty topic. Farm animal cruelty is a topic I (like many other Americans ) most likely may not have had exposure to seeing as it is not widely discussed through the news/media, and it is a difficult topic to casually discuss. I believe Haze’s intention was solely to educate and spread awareness surrounding farm animal cruelty, and not for an ego boost like Davis proclaims. Ultimately, discussing any community service and/or organization is a positive thing because without discussion, awareness cannot be spread to an audience!

Jessica Haze Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrKqdIcS_sc

Farm Sanctuary Website: https://www.farmsanctuary.org/

Davis Article: http://civicreflection.org/images/external_resources/What_We_Dont_Talk_About_When_We_Dont_Talk_About_Service.pdf